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LIBRARY 


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PEABODY  MUSEUM  OF  AMEKIOAtf  AKOHJE- 
OLOGY  AND  ETHNOLOGY. 

HEMENWAY  COLLECTION. 

GIFT  OF 

MARY    HEMENWAY. 

Received  June  2Q,  1S96. 


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8^'i^^fe: 


ARCHjEOLOG 


OF  OHIO 


V 


By  M.  C.  READ, 


LATE   OF   THE   GEOLOGICAL    SURVEY   OF   OHIO;    TRUSTEE 
OF  OHIO  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY  IN  CHARGE  AT 
PHILADELPHIA,    1876;     AND  ASSISTANT  COM- 
MISSIONER   AT    THE    EXPOSITION    AT 
NEW  ORLEANS  IN  1884-5. 


PUBMBHKD   BY 

<Tlj*  Utrotmi  Hcoerue  ^totortral  Sorietij, 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 


El? , 


2,e>6oik 


Approved  for  publication: 

Lee  McBride, 

H.  G.  Cleveland, 
Sam  Briggs, 

Committee  on  Printing. 


ff,KVKI,AXD  I.KAPKR   PRINT. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 


The  Archaeological  Exhibit.         ------  7 

Flint  or  Chert  Implements,                 .....  8 

Arrow  Points,         ...                         ....  10 

Knives,              -             -            -            -             -             -             -             -  U 

Scrapers,  Drills  and  Perforators.              -             -             -             -             -  22 

Chert  Spades  and  Hoes,         ------  22 

Stone  Implements,             -------  25 

Axes  and  Battle  Axes.             ------  25 

Hammer  Stones,                 .......  33 

Celts,  Skinners,  Etc.,               ......  :;  i 

Plumb  Balls,  Sinkers  and  Pendants,        -             -             -             -             -  35 

Mortars  and  Pestles,                 ......  36 

Cup  Stones,           --------  39 

Discoidal  Stones.          -               -               -                              -               -               -  39 

Stone  Ornaments,              -             -             -             -             -  •           -  40 

Bird-Shaped  Ornaments,        -              .....  42 

Beads  and  Tubes,              -             -             -             -             -             -             -  42 

Banner  Stones,  Badges,  or  Wands.  4o 

Pipes,        ----..-.-  46 

Hematite,         --------  52 

Bone  and  Horn  Implements,       ------  ,V2 

Copper  Implements,                 ......  53 

Pottery,     ---------  54 

Shells,              --------  56 

Kock  Shelters,      --------  50 

Human  Effigies.          -             - '           -            -             -             .             -  fii 

Fire  Hearths,       --------  64 

Picture  Writing  and  Inscribed  Rocks,           ....  60 

Earthworks,           --------  79, 

Mining  by  the  Mound  Builders,         .....  100 

Alphabetic  Writing  and  Engraved  Tablets,       -             -             -             -  101 

Social  and  Civil  Condition  of  the  Mound  Builders.             -             -  109 

Were  the  Mound  Builders  the  First  Occupants  ?          -  •                    -  113 

Addendum — What  is  It  ?       -             -             -             -             -             .  us 


£960l<o 


INTRODUCTION. 

During  this  centennial  year  of  Ohio,  the  attention  of  its 
citizens  will  be  generally  directed  to  its  past. 

The  State  is  remarkable  for  the  number  and  extent  of  its 
earthworks,  no  spot  of  equal  size  on  the  globe  having  so 
many  and  so  extensive  monuments  of  earth. 

Whether  one  stauds  on  the  grounds  of  the  Agricultural 
Society,  in  Licking  County,  inside  the  thirty -acre  circle,  with 
its  high  walls  shutting  out  all  view  of  modern  civilization, 
and  remembers  that  this  was  only  one  of  many  works 
extending  tor  miles  in  more  than  one  direction  ;  whether,  as 
happened  to  me  last  summer,  he  spends  three  and  a  half 
hours  clambering  along  the  steep  embankments  of  Fort 
Ancient,  or  whether  he  reads  in  books  alone  of  these  and 
various  wonderful  works,  remembering  again  that  there  are 
over  ten  thousand  mounds  in  the  State,  he  will  be  alike 
amazed  at  such  and  so  many  remains  left  by  a  race  so  far 
unknown  that  it  can  as  yet  simply  be  styled  "  The  Mound 
Builders.'' 

The  interest  has  been  romantic,  and  the  temptation,  in 
absence  of  evidence,  to  exercise  the  imagination,  has  been 
quite  irresistible.  As  years  have  flown  and  knowledge  from 
many  investigators  has  been  added  up,  it  is  time  that  archae- 
ology shall  begin  to  be  certain  and  a  science.  The  next 
step  requires  a  competent  experience  and  a  sound  judgement 
to  decide  both  what  is  and  what  is  not  proven.  For  to  be 
right  it  is  quite  important  to  know  the  limits  and  certainties 
of  knowledge. 

This  Society  presents  to  its  members  with  pleasure  this 
little  book,  by  Professor  M.  C.  Read,  of  Hudson,  Ohio,  late 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Geological  Survey,  of  the  State. 
He  was  also,  in  1876,  the  most  active  Trustee  of  the  State 
Archaeological    Society  of   Ohio,   in    charge,  with   the   late 


— G— 

President  of  our  Society,  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey,  of  the 
Archaeological  Exhibit  of  the  State  at  the  Philadelphia 
Exhibit.  Later  he  was  in  1884-5  Assistant  Commissioner  at 
the  Exposition  at  New  Orleans,  having  in  charge  the  archae- 
ological exhibit  there. 

His  tastes,  experiences,  and  mental  habits,  have  been  such 
that  we  think  ourselves  fortunate  in  making  this,  in  this 
centennial  year,  the  first  of  our  new  series  of  publications. 

It  has  been  desired  that  at  this  time  this  publication 
should  be  made,  and  hoped  that  it  will  be  of  value  in  assist- 
ing knowledge  and  directing  attention  to  this  subject  which 
it  is  to  be  hoped  is  this  year  to  have  the  advantage  of  the 
largest  exhibitions  within  the  State  itself. 

This  book  was  mainly  prepared  for  a  report  upon  this 
subject  and  most  of  the  illustrations  were  prepared  for  it  as 
such  and  in  outline  as  the  amount  to  be  devoted  to  engrav- 
ing was  small.  The  author  acknowledges  his  indebtedness 
to  this  Society,  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  to  Mr.  Robert 
Clarke,  of  Cincinnati,  and  Mr.  Peter  Neff,  of  Gambier,  for 
the  use  of  engravings  and  for  copies  of  others.  Some  of 
them  have  appeared  in  former  tracts  of  the  Society,  but  it 
has  been  thought  best  that  Professor  Read  should  be  able  to 
present,  though  not  a  complete,  a  typical  treatise  upon  his 
subject. 

C.  C.  BALDWIN, 

President  of  the  Western  Heserve  Historical  Society, 
of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 


The  Archaeological  Exhibit 


By  M.  C.  READ,  Assistant  Commissioner, 
Hudson,  Ohio. 


The  general  attention  now  given  to  archaeological  studies 
makes  all  good  exhibits  of  local  archaeology  important 
features  in  general  exhibitions.  This  was  made  apparent  at 
the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  Philadelphia.  No  part  of  that 
great  exhibit  of  the  industries  and  arts  of  the  world  attracted 
greater  attention  of  all  classes,  than  the  pre-historic  relics  of 
the  nations  represented.  The  beginnings  of  civilization,  the 
rude  attempts  of  primitive  man  everywhere,  to  conquer  the 
forces  of  nature,  and  provide  for  his  ever-increasing  wants, 
are  now  more  carefully  studied  than  ever  before.  And  as 
there  is  no  State  in  the  Union  richer  in  archaeological  remains 
than  Ohio,  it  was  eminently  fitting  that  the  exhibit  made  at 
New  Orleans,  intended  to  illustrate  the  arts,  industries, 
resources  and  civilization  of  this  State,  should  be  accom- 
panied by  a  like  exhibit  of  its  pre-Columbian  inhabitants. 

The  brief  time  which  could  be  given  to  making  the  col- 
lections for  this  exhibit,  rendered  the  making  of  such 
a  collection  as  was  desirable,  wholly  impossible.  If  all  of 
the  collections  great  and  small  in  the  State  could  be  examined, 
and  permission  obtained  to  use  selected  specimens,  which 
were  well  authenticated,  accompanied  with  descriptions 
showing  when,  where  and  under  what  conditions  they  were 
found,  an  exhibit  could  be  made  which  would  enable  us  to 
commence  an  accurate  classification  of  these  remains,  and  to 


— 8— 

understand  at  least  approximately  their  significance.    Before 

these  typical  and  valuable  specimens  are  lost  or  carried  out 

of  the  State,  such  a  collection  ought  to  be  made,  either  by 

the  State,  or  by  some  society,  so   organized,  as  to  insure  the 

preservation  of  the  collection,  in  some  central  locality,  where 

.  it.would.be  accessible  to  all  students  of  archaeology.     Every 

■  year's*  delay'ren-ders  the  making   of  such  a  collection  more 

,\  :  :  di^tftt^atidjwtjulcl:  make  the  collection  of  less  value  when 

"  'm&deV'  Tts 'preservation  could  be  fully  insured  by  making  it 

the   property  of  the    State,  to  be  treated  as   a  part  of  the 

library  of  the  history  of  the  State. 

In  -making  the  selections  for  the  New  Orleans  Exhibition, 
many  collections  could  not  be  visited.  Many  owners  were 
unwilling,  for  any  monied  guarantee,  to  risk  the  loss  of 
specimens,  and  reliance  had  to  be  made  upon  the  generosity 
and  public  spirit  of  those  who  were  willing  to  entrust  their 
Avhole  collections  to  the  care  of  the  Commission.  Messrs. 
Baldwin  and  Bauder,  of  the  Northern  Ohio  and  Western 
Reserve  Historical  Society,  of  Cleveland ;  The  Ohio  State 
University,  of  Columbus ;  Thomas  W.  Kinney,  of  Ports- 
mouth ;  R.  W".  Mercer  and  S.  C.  Heighway,  ot  Cincinnati, 
are  entitled  to  the  special  thanks  of  the  Committee  for  their 
generosity  in  this  particular. 

FLINT  OR  CHERT  IMPLEMENTS. 

Of  the  many  thousand  articles  exhibited,  the  so-called 
"flint"  implements  were  the  most  numerous,  and  these, 
from  the  great  variety  of  forms,  and  often  from  their  delicacy 
and  perfect  workmanship,  attract  the  most  attention.  They 
are  not  made  of  a  true  flint,  but  of  a  flint-like  chert,  found 
in  place  on  the  horizons  of  the  carboniferous  limestones  of 
the  State.  Many  ancient  quarries  have  been  noticed  from 
which  this  material  was  mined,  the  most  extensive  one  being 
on  Flint  Ridge,  southeast  ot  Newark,  in  Licking  county. 
Here  many  acres  are  covered,  to  a  depth  of  several  feet,  with 
the   broken    fragments   of   chert,  taken  from  the  quarries. 


The  miners  had  learned  that  the  chert  exposed  to  atmos- 
pheric agencies  did  not  chip  readily,  and  was  poorly  adapted 
to  their  work.  Accordingly  they  rarely  attacked  the  stratum 
at  its  outcrop,  but  sunk  pits  to  it,  where  it  was  covered  with 
several  feet  of  earth.  These  they  carried  through  the  chert) 
undermined  it,  and  could  thus  easily  work  out  the  blocks 
into  which  it  was  naturally  divided.  The  value  they  attached 
•to  this  material  is  indicated  by  the  vast  amount  of  waste 
now  remaing  upon  the  surface.  Not  more  than  one  or  two 
per  cent.,  of  the  material  quarried,  would  be  available  for 
the  production  of  the  bettter  class  of  flint  implements.  The 
selected  material  was  apparently  largely  carried  to  other 
places  to  be  manufactured,  and  was  probably  an  article  of 
barter  between  separated  communities.  Many  places  have 
been  noted,  remote  from  these  ancient  quarries,  where  the 
surface  soil  is  filled  with  chips  and  flakes,  and  where  broken 
arrows,  knives  and  spears  are  conspicuously  abundant. 

The  typical  fossih  of  the  limestones  are  sparingly  found 
in  the  chert,  and  are  occasionally  seen  in  the  finished  imple- 
ments —  reliable  witnesses  of  the  material.  Two  such 
specimens  from  my  small  collection  were  on   exhibition. 

In  Mr.  Kinney's  collection  was  a  large  number  of  beauti- 
ful specimens,  called  by  the  Archaeologists  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  "  leaf-shaped  implements."  These  were  a 
part  of  a  single  find  of  nearly  four  hundred  specimens,  and 
a  large  number  of  such  finds  have  been  made  in  the  State. 
Rarely  seen  scattered  upon  the  surface,  they  are  found  depos- 
ited by  hundreds  beneath  the  surface,  and,  in  every  case, 
where  definite  information  can  be  obtained,  on  the  margin 
of  a  stream  or  lake  where  they  would  be  kept  constantly 
moist.  None  of  them  are  notched  or  fitted  to  be  attached  to 
handles.  They  appear  to  be  unfinished  implements,  chip- 
ped into  form  and  hurried  where  the  flaking  character  of  the 
material  would  not  be  impaired,  and  to  be  afterward  fitted 
for  their  special  uses. 


—  1  li- 
lt is  related  that  when  the  Angel  met  Moses  at  the  Inn 
and  sought  to  kill  him,  his  wife,  Zippora,  evidently  suppos- 
ing that  his  danger  arose  from  the  fact  that  he  had  neglected 
to  subject  their  son  to  the  Abrahamie  rite,  seized  a  "sharp 
stone/'  and  with  it  circumcised  their  child,  when  the  Angel 
departed.  The  word  rendered  "sharp  stone"  in  the  Septua- 
gint  version  means  a  pebble  from  the  brook,  indicating  that 
the  author  of  the  narrative  understood  that  a  stone,  from 
which  a  knife  could  be  extemporized,  must  be  taken  from 
the  water.  It  is  also  related  that  the  California  Indians,  in 
want  of  a  knife,  will  search  in  the  nearest  stream  for  a  stone, 
chip  it  to  an  edge,  and  with  it  skin  a  deer  almost  as  quickly 
as  he  could  with  a  modern  steel  knife.  The  primitive  inhab- 
itants of  Ohio  were  doubtless  equally  well  informed,  and 
would  preserve  their  unfinished  implements  where  their 
flaking  qualities  would  not  be  impaired.  One  of  these  de- 
posits, in  Summit  County,  contained  also  a  number  of  pieces 
of  matamorphic  slate,  chipped  into  the  form  of  the  polished 
stone  ornaments,  common  in  the  State,  but  neither  per- 
forated or  polished. 

ARROW  POINTS. 

What  are  "arrow  points?"  is  a  question  which  would  be 
differently  answered  by  different  collectors.  A  correct  an- 
swer to  this  question,  and  many  others  which  will  arise  in 
an  attempted  classification,  can  perhaps  be  reached  by 
learning — 

First.  How  tribes,  still  making  flint  implements,  use 
them. 

Second.  What  is  the  form  of  the  first  substitutes  for  them 
made  of  metal  ? 

Third.  What  light  does  any  well-authenticated  picture 
writing  shed  upon  the  question? 

Now  all  the  flint  arrow  tips,  anywhere  obtained,  attached 
to  shafts,  are  very  small  in  comparison  with  many  so-called 
arrows  in  most  collections,  and  the  modern  Indian,  who  still 


—11— 

uses  the  bow,  and  has  adopted  iron  or  steel  for  his  arrow 
tips,  makes  them  all  small.  It  is  obvious  also  that  the  large 
pieces  could  be  used  for  arrow  points  only  at  short  range, 
and  with  very  strong  bows. 

In  the  illustrations, figure  No.  8  represents  a  very  delicate 
glass  arrow  point  made  by  a  Tin  Tin  California  Indian;  Nos. 
19  and  20,  chert  points,  attached  to  shafts  in  the  Smith- 
sonian collection,  made  by  McCloud  River  Indians;  Nos.  21 
and  22,  similar  points  in  the  same  collection,  made  by 
Hoopah  Indians,  and  Nos.  24,  25  and  26,  iron  points,  attached 
to  shafts  in  the  Montana  exhibit. 

With  these  may  be  compared  Nos.  1  to  18,  inclusive,  repre- 
senting the  different  forms  and  sizes  of  what  may  properly 
be  called  Ohio  arrow  points.  But  there  is  a  gradual  increase 
in  size,  and  no  definite  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  arrow 
points  and  the  larger  forms. 

KNIVES. 

Chert  and  rock  fragments,  which  could  be  chipped  to  a 
sharp  edge,  constituted  the  only  material  largely  available 
for  the  manufacture  of  cutting  implements  for  primitive  men, 
and  natural  wants  would  prompt  to  the  extensive  use  of  this 
material  for  such  purposes.  The  forms  of  the  implements, 
the  specimens  still  found  in  use  attached  to  their  short  han- 
dles, and  the  few  specimens  found,  in  which  the  handle  is 
wrought  out  of  the  same  material  as  the  knife,  and  consti- 
tuting a  part  of  it,  clearly  indicate  the  character  of  these 
implements. 

The  rudest  form  is  made  without  any  attempt  at  symmetry, 
without  any  provision  for  the  attachment  of  a  handle,  and  is 
simply  a  rock  fragment  chipped  to  a  single  cutting  edge. 
A  collection  of  such  knives,  taken  from  a  rock  shelter  in 
Boston,  Summit  County,  was  among  the  exhibits.  Nearly 
all  found  at  that  place  were  of  this  character — fragments  of 
shale,  quartz,  boulders,  and  other  rock,  so  broken  as  to  give 
a  single  cutting  edge,  of  such  forms  as  Nos.  27  and  28  in  the 


—13— 


—14— 

illustrations.  From  the  ash-bed  of  this  shelter  seventy-five 
such  knives  were  gathered,  made  from  all  the  material  avail- 
able for  such  uses,  to  be  found  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the 
uses  for  which  they  were  intended  could  not  be  mistaken. 

Figure  29  represents  one  of  several  specimens  of  handled 
flint  knives  in  the  Smithsonian  collection,  reduced  one-half 
diameter. 

No.  3930,  of  the  Smithsonian  collection,  is  a  knife  of  red 
jaspery  chert,  obtained  from  a  mound  on  Warrior  River? 
Alabama,  of  which  the  handle  is  of  the  same  material  as  the 
knife,  the  whole  being  of  one  piece.  This  is  also  in  figure 
No.  30,  reduced  one-half. 

Figure  No.  31  represents  a  similar  knife  from  the  same 
collection,  and  No.  32,  still  a  different  form,  made  of  white 
chert,  in  the  Missouri  collection,  both  reduced  one-half. 

These  illustrations  sufficiently  show  the  manner  of  attach- 
ing handles  to  these  implements,  which  were  doubtless  used, 
so  far  as  their  wants  required,  for  all  the  purposes  for  which 
modern  cutting  implements  are  used.  When  all  the  collec- 
tions in  the  State  are  collated  and  compared,  it  is  probable 
that  specimens  from  the  mounds  may  be  distinguished  from 
later  forms,  and  that  a  discrimination  can  be  made  between 
local  tribal  forms.  Marked  distinctions  can  now  be  seen 
between  collections  made  in  different  places,  in  part  due  to 
the  differences  in  the  character  of  the  material  used,  and 
doubtless  in  part  due  to  the  skill  and  taste  of  the  manufac- 
turers. 

The  forms  are  almost  endless,  and  pass  by  incessable 
gradations  into  the  forms  which  in  collections  are  classified 
as  daggers  and  spears.  Illustrations  of  a  few  of  the  most 
typical  forms  will  be  given. 

Figure  33  represents  a  very  beautiful  specimen,  found 
deeply  buried  in  the  glacial  drift  in  Twinsburgh,  Summit 
County. 


■15- 


10- 


—17— 

It  has  a  highly  polished,  reddish  surface,  supposed 
to  indicate  great  antiquity.  A  precisely  similar  specimen 
was  in  the  Rhode  Island  Exhibit  at  the  Centennial.  Mr. 
Thomas  Cleany  has,  in  his  very  valuable  collection  at  Cin- 
cinnati, two  such  specimens  taken  from  a  mound  in  Missouri ; 
and  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Kinney  has  also  one  which  was  on 
exhibition  in  his  collection  at  New  Orleans,  but  the  locality 
from  which  it  was  obtained  is  not  given. 

A  similar  form,  of  yellow  jasper,  from  California,  is  figured 
in  the  description  of  the  typical  specimens  in  the  Smith- 
sonian Collection. 

This  peculiar  form,  from  widely  separated  localities — all 
the  specimens,  so  far  as  appears,  are  very  old — some  of  them 
from  mounds,  tends  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Indians 
occupying,  at  least  the  northern  part  of  the  United  States 
upon  its  discovery  by  Europeans,  were  preceded  by  a  more 
artistic  people. 

Attempting  to  make  no  distinction  between  knives,  dag- 
gers, and  spear  points,  illustrations  of  some  of  the  most 
marked  forms  are  given  in  the  plates  of  illustrations,  figures 
No.  33  to  66  inclusive.  Some  of  these,  particularly  No.  36, 
from  Indiana,  and  No.  46,  from  North  Carolina,  are  remark- 
ably similar  to  modern  knife-blades.  Quite  a  large  number 
of  the  arrow-point  form,  are  symmetrically  beveled  on  the 
opposite  sides  of  the  two  edges,  of  which  No.  40,  from 
Knox  county,  is  an  illustration.  This  specimen  carries  a 
characteristic  fossil  of  the  coal  measure  limestone. 

This  form  is  by  many  regarded  as  intended  to  give  a 
rotary  motion  to  the  missile,  but  this  is  very  doubtful.  Most 
of  these  beveled  specimens  are  too  large  for  arrow-points, 
and  if  used  for  spear-points,  the  small  surface  of  the  beveled 
edges  would  not  give  the  rotary  motion  to  a  heavy  missile. 
This  form  may  be  the  result  of  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
material,  the  symmetrical  beveling  being  determined  by  the 
position  in  which  the  object  was  held  when  chipped.  Or,  if 
designed,  the  object  may  have  been  to  get  a  stronger  cutting 
or  scraping  edge  than  would  result  from  a  flatter  chipping. 


—IS- 


—19— 

Figures  39,  from  Mr.  Kinney's  collection,  and  47,  from 
Knox  County,  illustrate  forms  abundant  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  State.  They  are  all  very  thick,  short  and  broad,  with 
long  and  strong  shanks  by  which  they  were  apparently 
fastened  into  sockets ;  none  of  them  have  notches  to  aid  in 
binding  them  in  place.  Figure  87  illustrates,  probably,  one 
of  the  uses  of  this  form.  It  is  a  modern  war-club  with  an 
iron  tooth,  doubtless  of  the  form  of  the  flint  tooth  formerly 
used.  Bancroft,  in  his  "Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States," 
Vol.  IV.,  page  210,  gives  an  illustration  of  Yucatan  sculpture, 
in  which  a  figure  is  represented  armed  with  probably  what 
the  Spanish  invaders  called  stone  swords,  consisting  of  a 
club  into  which  was  fastened  four  chipped  stones  or  flints ; 
the  weapon  is  illustrated  in  figure  88.  These  stout  Ohio 
forms  were  very  probably  used  in  a  similar  manner. 

Figure  45,  from  S.  C.  Heigh  way's  collection,  represents  a 
form  found  in  nearly  all  the  collections  in  the  southwest 
part  of  the  State.  All  are  very  symmetrical,  very  elegantly 
chipped,  generally  of  pretty  large  size,  the  specimen  figured 
being  one  of  the  smallest.  The  shank  is  often  very  much 
smaller  than  that  of  the  one  figured,  and  often  so  delicate 
that  if  fastened  to  a  handle  it  would  be  very  liable  to  be 
broken.  Every  modern  man  or  boy  is  not  equipped  for  work 
or  play,  without  his  pocket  knife  ;  and  it  is  suggested  that 
the  notched  shanks  of  these  and  similar  forms  were  not  made, 
at  least  in  all  cases,  for  the  purpose  of  attaching  handles, 
but  rather  for  attaching  strings,  by  which  the  knives  were 
securely  tied  to  the  clothing,  to  be  always  ready  for  all  the 
uses  made  of  the  modern  pocket  knife. 

Figure  53,  from  Logan  County,  is  beautifully  toothed  on 
each  edge,  and  is  a  remarkably  delicate  specimen  of  chipping. 
It  could  not  be  designed  for  use  as  an  ordinary  knife  or  spear, 
but  was  probably  used  as  a  kind  of  saw. 

No.  44  is  of  white  chert,  very  beautifully  chipped,  and 
Avas  picked  up   on  the    site  of  an  old  manufactory  of  chert 


-20- 


-21— 


—22— 

implements  in  the  northern  part  of  Trumbull  County,  and  at 
a  remote  distance  from  any  natural  deposit  of  chert. 

SCRAPERS,  DRILLS  AND  PERFORATORS. 

Figures  67  to  79  illustrate  some  of  the  forms  of  drills  and 
scrapers  from  Mr.  Kinney's  collection,  and  80,  81,  and  84, 
specimens  from  Mr.  Heighway's  collection.  There  is  almost 
an  endless  variety  of  forms,  and  some  of  them  show  won- 
derful skill  in  the  art  of  chipping. 

Figures  82,  83,  and  85,  represent  specimens  put  on  exhibi- 
tion at  Philadelphia  by  H.  H.  Hill,  of  Cincinnati,  and  are 
introduced  to  show  some  of  the  most  unusual  forms. 

Figure  86  is  quite  unique,  and  illustrates  a  specimen 
belonging  to  Florien  Giouque,  Esq.,  of  Cincinnati.  The 
peculiar  form  is  plainly  designed,  and  not  the  result  of  acci- 
dent, or  of  any  flaw  in  the  material.  He  calls  it  a  fish  spear, 
and  the  name  may  stand  in  default  of  a  better  one. 

CHERT  SPADES  AND  HOES. 

Some  remarkably  excellent  agricultural  implements  were 
put  on  exhibition,  especially  in  the  collection  contributed  by 
Mr.  L.  F.  Bauder  and  Judge  C.  C.  Baldwin,  of  Cleveland.  Some 
of  these  were  fully  one  foot  long  and  six  inches  wide,  chipped 
from  chert  in  a  way  which  would  puzzle  any  modern  artificer, 
with  all  his  appliances,  to  imitate.  Ordinary  chert  arrows 
and  knives  can  be  readily  imitated,  as  the  material  yields  to 
simple  pressure  upon  the  edges  and  can  be  flaked  in  shape. 
But  how  sufficient  pressure  could  be  applied  to  these  large 
pieces  to  flake  them  into  shape,  and  not  entirely  crush  them, 
is  a  difficult  problem  to  solve.  These  spades  and  hoes  were 
attached  to  handles,  and  fastened  in  place  by  some  material 
which  covered  from  one-third  to  one-half  their  surfaces. 
This  is  shown  by  the  limitation  of  the  polished  surface,  as 
some  of  them  have  been  used  until  the  part  brought  into 
contact  with  the  earth  became  as  smooth  as  glass.  Taking 
into  account  the  difficulty  in  finding  blocks  of  chert  without 


54 


-24— 


—25— 

flaws,  large  enough  for  the  production  of  these  tools,  and 
the  labor  required  to  shape  them,  it  is  probable  that  spades 
and  hoes  to-day,  of  beaten  gold,  would  not  cost  as  much  in 
days'  labor  as  these  old  implements  cost.  Surely  in  the 
sweat  of  their  faces  did  these  old  agriculturists  eat  their 
bread. 

STONE  IMPLEMENTS. 

The  boulders  of  the  drift  famished  the  great  supply  of 
material  tor  what  are  ordinarily  called  stone  implements. 
These  are  found  in  the  State  in  great  profusion  and  of  a 
variety  of  forms,  some  very  roughly  wrought,  and  others 
very  highly  polished.  But  in  Ohio  material  does  not  exist 
for  the  determination  of  a  paleolithic  and  neolithic  age, 
unless  we  limit  the  latter  to  post- Columbian  times.  Very 
delicately  cut  and  highly  polished  pipes  of  catlinite  are 
occasionally  found,  probably  wrought  with  modern  tools 
obtained  from  the  whites.  Several  such  specimens  were 
obtained  from  small  mounds  near  Monroeville,Huron  County. 
In  other  places  pipes  of  this  material  are  found  inlaid  with 
lead  ornaments.  Of  course  these  are  quite  modern.  The 
carefully  wrought  pipes,  and  other  articles  obtained  from  the 
mounds,  indicate  greater  skill  in  the  working  of  stone  than 
was  manifested  by  the  hunting  tribes,  who  occupied  the 
territory  upon  the  advent  of  the  white  settlers.  So  that  it 
we  should  seek  for  a  rough  stone  age  and  a  polished  stone 
age,  the  latter  would  be  prior  in  time.  The  builders  of  the 
mounds  evidently  had  a  higher  social  organization  than  the 
hunting  tribes,  and  would  naturally  excel  them  in  the 
rudiments  of  the  arts  of  civilization. 

AXES  AND  BATTLE-AXES. 

The  grooved  axes  are  among  the  most  remarkable  of  Ohio 
finds.  They  present  a  great  variety  of  forms,  and  range  in 
size  from  a  weight  of  one  to  sixteen  pounds.  Some  even  of 
the  largest  are  highly  polished,  very  symmetrial  in  form,  are 


—26— 


-27- 


—28— 

brought  to  as  sharp  an  edge  as  the  material  will  permit, 
each  evidently  representing  many  months  of  continuous 
labor. 

Many  of  the  forms  indicate  that  they  were  handled  by 
bending  a  flexible  branch  of  the  size  of  a  small  hoop-pole 
around  the  groove,  and  fastening  it  in  place  by  thongs,  or 
some  similar  material.  A  groove  is  sometimes  made  on  one 
of  the  narrow  sides,  at  right  angles  with  the  groove  for  the 
handle,  and  evidently  intended  to  keep  in  place  a  wedge 
driven  in  to  tighten  the  fastenings  of  the  handle. 

When  we  imagine  one  of  the  largest  of  these  axes,  with  a 
handle  proportioned,  like  the  handle  of  a  modern  axe,  we 
have  to  imagine  with  it  a  man  to  wield  it,  larger  and  stronger 
than  Goliath,  of  Gath. 

Through  the  kindness  of  W.  H.  Abbott,  I  obtained  at  the 
Exposition  the  cast  of  an  axe  found  in  Lake  County,  Illinois, 
at  a  place  where  several  small  mounds  were  plowed  over. 
The  axe  and  handle  are  wrought  out  of  one  piece,  and  the 
specimen  doubtless  illustrates  the  relative  proportions  of  the 
axes  and  handles,  when  wooden  handles  were  used,  a  pro- 
portion which  must  have  been  substantially  preserved  to 
enable  any  one  to  wield  these  large  axes.  The  length  of  the 
axe,  from  poll  to  edge  of  bit,  was  seven  inches ;  width  of  edge, 
four  and  a  halt  inches  ;  entire  length  of  axe  and  handle, 
nine  and  three-fourths  inches.  It  was  intended  to  be  used 
with  one  hand,  and  grasped  so  near  to  the  axe  the  imple- 
ment does  not  seem  unwieldy.  A  greatly  reduced  outline  of 
this  axe  is  given  in  figure  03.  Whether  used  in  peaceful 
avocations,  or  as  battle-axes,  especially  by  foot  soldiers,  such 
short  handles  would  be  indispensable.  For  purposes  of  com- 
parison, figures  95  are  given,  showing  the  size  of  battle  axes 
in  the  hands  of  warriors,  from  sculptures  copied  by  Rawiin- 
son  in  his  "Ancient  Monarchies."  At  the  right  of  each  is  a 
line  showing  the  height  of  the  figure  of  the  soldier  carrying 
the  axe.  Figure  94  is  a  copy  of  the  battle-axe  in  the  hands 
of  a  warrior,  taken  from  one  of  the  published  cuts  of  the 


— so— 


—31— 

"  Wilmington  Inscribed  Stones."  The  line  at  the  right  also 
shows  the  height  in  the  engraving  of  the  warrior  carrying 
it.  As  he  is  evidently  represented  as  on  the  war-path, 
carrying  a  spear  in  his  left  hand,  and  this  battle-axe  in  the 
other,  it  is  evident  that  the  artist  intended  to  represent  an 
axe  to  be  wielded  with  one  hand.  If  the  manner  in  which 
the  axe  is  fastened  to  the  handle  is  compared  with  the 
obvious  mode  of  fastening  two  pieces,  crossing  each  other  at 
right  angles  as  represented  in  figure  96,  from  a  figure  of  a 
sculpture  from  Guatemala,  and  the  use  that  is  made  of  one 
of  these  delicate  crescents  of  metamorphic  slate,  so  common 
in  Ohio,  is  noted,  it  will  be  evident  that  the  artist  com- 
mitted about  as  many  blunders  as  could  be  crowded  into  the 
delineation  of  a  single  object.  If  the  relative  proportions 
are  observed,  and  the  warrior  was  of  the  stature  of  six  feet, 
the  axe  would  be  one  foot  long  and  with  a  handle  of  the 
length  of  about  four  and  a  half  feet.  It  is  attached  to  the 
handle  in  an  impossible  manner.  An  expensive  ornament  is 
attached  to  the  end  of  the  handle,  the  most  inconvenient 
termination  that  could  be  devised,  but  which  would  for- 
tunately be  shattered  by  the  first  blow  with  the  axe. 
Whoever  may  be  the  artist,  and  in  whatever  age  he  lived,  he 
has  certainly  given  us  a  fancy  sketch  of  no  value  except  to 
illustrate  the  skill  and  imagination  of  the  artist. 


-32— 


\      89 

f 

^zzri^ 

—33- 


Ficrure  90  is  a  full-sized  illustra- 
te 

tion  of  a  very  beautiful  and  highly 
polished  ornamental  axe,  of  bluish 
green  metamorphic  slate,  found 
near  Fort  Hamilton,  in  Hamilton 
County,  which,  so  far  as  known, 
is  a  unique  specimen.  Figures  89 
and  92  represent  more  common 
forms  reduced  one-half. 

A   systematic    classification    of 
the  different  forms   is  impossible. 
The  workmen  apparently  selected 
natural  boulders  as  near  the  form 
92  and   size   of   the   utensil    to    be 

formed  as  possible,  and  worked  them  into  a  useful  shape 
with  as  little  labor  as  possible,  so  that  the  forms  they  finally 
assumed  were  often  more  the  result  of  accident  than  of  the 
design  of  the  workman. 

Not  all  of  the  axes  are  grooved  ;  occasionally  a  double- 
grooved  specimen  is  found,  and  one  double-bitted  axe  was 
on  exhibition.  It  will  be  apparent  that  none  of  these  axes 
were  efficient  cutting  implements,  yet  a  specimen  of  wood 
taken  from  a  mound,  and  belonging  to  the  Ohio  State  Uni- 
versity, shows  that  a  log  could  be  cut  off"  with  a  nearly 
square  butt  with  these  stone  axes,  and  the  marks  of  the  axe 
upon  it  indicate  a  rapidity  of  execution  quite  remarkable. 

HAMMER  STONES. 

These  are  symmetrical  stones,  oblong  or  round — sometimes 
plain,  sometimes  grooved — and  occasionally  double-grooved, 
two  grooves  passing  around  the  stone  at  right  angles  to  each 
other.  While  commonly  called  hammer  stones,  specimens 
obtained  from  the  Western  Indians  are  conclusive  evidence 
that  they  were  sometimes  used,  with  handles  attached,  as 
war  clubs,  and  very  likely  were  mainly  designed  for  this  use. 


— ;34— 

Sitting  Bull's  war  club,  exhibited  in  the  Montana  collec- 
tion, is  a  symmetrical  stone  in  the  form  of  two  cones,  applied 
base  to  base,  grooved  at  the  centre,  to  which  is  attached  a 
flexible  handle  covered  with  raw  buffalo  hide,  by  which  it  is 
attached  to  the  stone.  The  handle  is  thirty  inches  long  and 
the  whole  constitutes  a  very  formidable  weapon  for  hand  to 
hand  combat,  in  the  hands  of  a  mounted  man.  Specimens 
similar  to  this,  with  a  stiff  handle  made  of  the  leg  bone  of  a 
deer,  and  ten  or  twelve  inches  long,  all  covered  with  raw- 
hide, are  used  by  unmounted  Indians. 

Another  specimen  in  the  Montana  collection  shows  another 
similar  mode  of  using  these  stone  balls.  A  spherical  stone, 
about  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  is  neatly  covered 
with  rawhide,  which  at  one  side  is  continued  into  strings, 
braided  into  a  stout  cord  a  few  inches  long.  The  end  of 
this  cord  is  attached  to  a  flexible  handle,  the  whole  forming 
a  slung-shot  with  which  an  enemy  could  be  terribly  punished. 

Figures  on  Trojans  column  represent 
the  Kelts  in  battle,  loaded  with  such 
stones,  which  they  are  using  as  missiles, 
some  throwing  them  with  the  hand, 
others  with  a  sling.  They  were  doubt- 
less used  by  our  Indians  for  a  variety  of 
purposes,  peaceful  and  warlike,  and  some 
of  them  by   their  abrasion  show  their 


Grooved    Hammer. 
Rockport,  Cuyahoga  county, 


Ohio,  \  nature.  continued  use  as  hammer  stones. 


CELTS,  SKINNERS,  ETC. 

Of  these  there  was  a  very  large  variety  in  the  exhibit. 
They  are  chisel-shaped  stones  of  different  sizes,  all  brought 
to  an  edge,  and  some  showing  long-continued  use.  By  some 
they  are  called  bark-peelers,  and  if  their  name  was  to  be 
determined  by  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  most  used, 
it  is  probable  that  this  name  would  be  adopted. 


—35— 

Lumbering,  with  the  Indian,  was  bark-peeling,  and  there 
was  nothing  within  his  reach  supplying  so  many  of  his  wants 
with  so  little  labor,  as  bark.  An  Indian  Paley  would  find  in 
the  fact  that  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  the  bark  was  so 
easily  separated  from  the  growing  tree,  his  most  marked 
evidence  of  a  beneficent  design,  intended  for  the  comfort  of 
the  race.  With  the  whole  sheets  of  bark  he  built  his  houses ; 
with  the  inner  layers  he  made  baskets,  clothing,  thread,  cord, 
ropes,  etc.,  and  doubtless  used  it  many  ways  not  suspected 
by  us.  In  the  gathering  and  preparing  of  this  material 
these  implements  would  be  used,  and  also  many  of  the  sharp 
or  serrated  edged  chert  knives.  Until  we  can  compile  a 
history  of  their  arts,  we  can  not  determine  all  the  uses  of 
any  of  these  implements. 

PLUMB-BALLS,  SINKERS  AND  PENDANTS. 

The  forms  of  these  are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  speci- 
mens :  some  spherical,  some  cylindrical,  some  oval,  some 
simple  circular  disks;  and  the  kinds  of  material  of  which 
they  are  made  almost  equally  diverse.  They  all  have  this 
in  common,  that  they  are  relatively  small,  and  are  so  per- 
forated as  to  be  easily  suspended  by  a  string,  or  have  a  small 
groove  in  which  a  string  can  be  tied,  for  purposes  of  sus- 
pension. In  the  collection  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute 
obtained  from  Alaska,  are  stone  sinkers,  one  of  which  is 
six  and  a  half  inches  long,  and  over  an  inch  in  diameter  at 
the  largest  point,  attached  as  sinkers  to  the  lines  furnished 
with  hooks  for  fishing.  One  would  be  slow  to  suspect  the 
use  of  so  heavy  stone  sinkers  with  so  small  fishing  lines  as 
those  in  this  exhibit.  Almost  all  tribes  have  learned  the 
art  of  fishing  with  hook  and  line,  and  specimens  of  hooks 
found  in  Ohio,  as  well  as  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  indi- 
cate the  practice  everywhere  here  of  the  art  which  good 
old  Isaac  Walton  has  made  classical. 

With  lines  made  of  bark  and  the  coarse  fibers  available, 
and  unevenly  and  poorly  twisted,  requisite  strength  would 


—36— 

require  large  lines,  and  these  would  require  correspondingly 
heavy  sinkers.  Doubtless  these  articles  were  sometimes  used 
for  other  purposes,  but  none  of  them  are  too  heavy  sinkers 
for  fishing,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  were  oftener  used  for 
this  than  for  any  other  purposes. 

MORTARS  AND  PESTLES. 

Natural  instinct  everywhere  prompts  to  the  crushing,  or 
grinding  of  grain  to  prepare  it  for  food,  and  the  first  flour- 
ing mill  is  composed  of  two  stones,  one  of  which  can  be  used 
with  the  hand  in  crushing  the  grain  poured  upon  the  other. 
This  would  soon  be  developed  into  the  pestle  and  mortar, 
so  easily  made  and  so  efficient  that  civilized  man  everywhere 
reverts  to  their  use  when  better  appliances  fail. 

When  the  Confederate  forces  were  driven  from  Mission 
Ridge,  flouring  mills  were  found  scattered  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  ridge.  Each  consisted  of  the  stump  of  a  tree 
hollowed  out  with  the  axe,  and  a  round  boulder  picked  up 
in  the  neighborhood.  With  these  the  soldiers  prepared  the 
grain  for  their  corn-dodger  rations.  In  the  bed  of  a  stream 
in  a  forest,  in  the  north  part  of  Ashland  County,  is  a  granite 
boulder  of  considerable  size,  in  the  top  of  which  a  cavity  of 
a  capacity  of  a  peck  or  more  has  been  laboriously  picked. 
It  would  have  been  carried  away  long  ago,  to  do  service  in 
an  archaeological  collection  as  a  splendid  specimen  of  an 
Indian  mortar,  had  it  not  been  disclosed  that  it  was  the 
work  of  a  pioneer  hunter  who  remained  long  enough  in  that 
locality  to  raise  small  crops  of  corn,  and  needed  a  mill  in 
which  to  grind  it.  It  still  deserves  to  be  rescued  from  its 
retreat  and  preserved  as  an  illustration  of  pioneer  history. 

The  indigenous  races  here  seem  never  to  have  advanced 
beyond  the  pestle  and  mortar,  although  the  hand-mill  of 
two  stones,  one  turning  upon  the  other,  seems  to  be  readily 
suggested  by  them.  Such  a  mill  is  a  machine — the  pioneer  of 
all  machinery — and  these  races  apparently  made  no  machines. 
Tools   and  implements   of  a   great   variety  of   forms,   with 


which  the  working  power  is  muscular  force,  they  had  the 
skill  to  make,  but  not  the  skill  to  subject  any  of  the  forces 
of  nature  to  their  control.  The  hand-mill  substitutes  the 
force  of  gravity  for  muscular  force. 

The  most  intelligent  animals  use  tools — the  Gibbon  fights 
with  a  war  club,  the  monkey  cracks  nuts  with  a  stone,  and 
the  elephant  drives  away  the  Hies  which  annoy  him,  with  a 
brush.  The  savage  makes  tools,  but  no  machines.  His  bow 
and  arrow  and  his  blow-tube  are  not  in  the  highest  sense 
machines,  for  his  muscular  energy  drives  the  missile. 

The  beginning  of  real  civilization  is  made  in  the  construc- 
tion of  machines  by  which  the  strength  of  animals  and  the 
forces  of  nature  become  a  substitute  for  human  muscular 
work.  When  the  hand-mill  is  discovered,  the  force  of  the 
running  stream  is  soon  harnessed  to  it,  and  out  of  this  com- 
bination grows  the  modern  liouring  mill  with  all  its  im- 
provements. This  first  step  was  not  made  by  these  primitive 
races,  and  they  must  be  classed  as  savages.  While  they  did 
not  advance  beyond  the  mortar  and  pestle,  they  expended 
much  labor  upon  them,  and  with  very  creditable  results. 
As  the  mortars  are  generally  very  heavy,  only  two  were  put 
on  exhibition,  but  the  pestles  were  very  numerous  and  of  a 
great  variety  of  forms.  While  they  had  no  flouring  mills, 
they  prepared  their  grain  both  by  the  grinding  and  the 
roller  process.  The  pestles  with  one  broad,  rounded  end, 
were  used  for  grinding;  the  long  specimens,  largest  in  the 
middle  and  tapering  slightly  toward  each  end,  were  used  in 
the  roller  process  as  they  are  now  used  with  the  metate  by 
the  New  Mexican  and  Pueblo  Indians. 

An  unusual  form  of  pestle  is  represented  by  figure  93, 
reduced  one-half.  It  has  a  broad  grinding  surface,  with  a 
handle  just  long  enough  to  be  clasped  with  one  hand  and  a 
peculiarly  ornamented  top.  It  was  found  upon  the  surface 
in  Summit  County.  An  illustration  of  a  common  form  from 
the  Cleveland  Historical  Society's  Collection  is  also  given, 
(figure  93a.) 


38— 


Fig.  93a. 


—39— 

CUP  STONES. 

These  are  sometimes  called  nut  stones,  and  oftener  foot- 
rests  for  spindles.  They  are  very  common  in  the  State,  and 
have  been  picked  up  in  large  numbers  at  the  site  of  a  series 
of  old  fire  hearths  in  Summit  County.  A  large  collection 
shows  that  the  cavities  were  commenced  by  an  instrument 
like  a  pick,  which  left  a  conical,  rough  cavity,  and  were 
finally  shaped  by  rotating  some  object  in  the  cavity.  When 
brought  to  the  size  of  about  one  inch  in  diameter,  they  were 
apparently  no  longer  used,  as  new  cavities  are  commenced 
near  their  margins  which  enlarged  to  the  same  size  would 
cut  into  them.  They  are  made  on  natural  fragments  of 
rock,  in  this  locality  almost  exclusively  the  debris  of  the 
carboniferous  conglomerate,  a  coarse  sand-stone  with  a  sharp 
grit.  With  few  exceptions  throughout  the  State  they  are 
made  in  similar  rock.  A  single  fragment  often  bears  several 
of  these  cavities  and  sometimes  on  opposite  sides.  If  used 
as  spindle  rests,  it  is  strange  that  so  coarse  a  stone  is  selected 
which  would  make  the  friction  much  greater  than  if  a 
harder  rock  were  used. 

Dr.  Ran  reports  that  some  of  the  specimens  in  the  Smith- 
sonian collection  still  show  traces  of  red  paint  in  the  cavities, 
and  it  is  possible  they  were  generally  used  to  grind  down 
pieces  of  hematite  for  paint.  The  specimens  from  this 
locality  show  no  indication  that  they  were  formed  by  crack- 
ing nuts. 

DISCOID AL  STONES. 
These,  of  various  sizes,  are  tolerably  abundant  in  the  State, 
and  some  remarkably  fine  and  large  specimens  were  exhib- 
ited in  the  collection.  Those  of  smaller  size,  and  perforated 
at  the  center,  were  probably  used  as  spindle  weights.  The 
larger  and  imperforated  ones,  perhaps  in  some  game.  Dr. 
Rau  quotes  from  Adair  a  detailed  description  of  the  game  of 
chungke  asTplayed  with  such  discs,  and  this  explanation  of 
their  use  is  the  most  probable  one.  See  also  "  Relics  of  the 
Mound  Builders,"  Western  Reserve  Historical  Society  Tract 
JSTo.  28,  by  C.  0.  Baldwin. 


40- 


STONE  ORNAMENTS. 


The  metamorphic  slate,  found  in  the  drift,  was  the  favor- 
ite material  for  the  manufacture  of  stone  ornaments.  It  is 
often  beautifully  banded,  is  moderately  hard,  takes  a  fine 
polish,  and  is  not  easily  broken  or  scratched.  Oblong  pieces, 
generally  called  "shuttles,"  are  very  abundant.  Of  these 
there  are  a  great  many  forms,  generally  with  two  perforations 
on  a  central  line,  each  one  generally  about  equi-distant 
from  the  center  and  one  of  the  ends.  These  holes  are 
apparently  counter-sunk,  so  that  if  attached  to  the  clothing 
by  cords  passing  through  the  holes,  having  a  knot  at  the 
end,  the  knot  would  be  below  the  surface.  Unfinished 
specimens  show  that  in  perforating  them,  conical  drills  were 
used,  giving  a  counter-sunk  form  to  the  holes.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  they  were  used  as  shuttles  in  weaving,  in 
smoothing  sinews  or  cords  drawn  through  the  holes,  or  in 
twisting  double-stranded  cords,  but  the  holes  are  almost 
uniformly  as  perfect  as  when  first  drilled,  and  either  of  these 
uses  would  quickly  destroy  their  symmetry — certainly  the 
striae  left  by  the  drill.  That  they  were  not  made  purely  for 
ornaments,  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  a  much  coarser 
material  than  this  ornamental  slate  is  sometimes  used  in 
making  them.  An  unfinished  specimen  from  fine  grained 
yellow  Waver] y  sand-stone  was  picked  up  in  Summit  County, 
and  a  rock-shelter  in  the  same  county,  in  which  all  the 
remains  were  exceedingly  rude,  yielded  one  specimen  from 
Waverly  shale,  unpolished,  unperforated,  but  which  had 
apparently  been  abraded  or  worn  longitudinally  on  one  side 
by  a  softer  material  than  that  by  which  it  was  formed. 

It  may  have  been  attached  to  the  left  arm  as  a  protection 
against  the  bow-string,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  more 
perfct  specimens  were  used  for  the  same  purpose.  This  use 
is  rendered  more  probable  by  the  fact  that  specimens  are 
found  in  graves  in  such  position  as  indicates  that  they  were 
attached  to  the  arm  of  the  buried  body. 


—41— 


£  Nature.     Assorted  Shuttles  from   Stones— Northern   Ohio;  Collection  of  the  Fire  Lands 

Historical  Society. 


J  Nature.     Assorted  Shuttles  from  Stones — Northern  Ohio:  Collection  of  the  Fire  Lands 
Historica    Society. 


— 4*»- 


BIRD-SHAPED  ORXAMENTS. 

These  were  largely  represented  in  the  collection,  and  are 
abundant  in  Ohio.  They  are  formed  out  of  this  ornamental 
slate,  and  in  most  of  the  specimens  the  bird-form  is  very 
clearly  intended.  Some  of  them  have  projecting  eyes  that 
give  them  a  strange  appearance.  They  all  have  this  pecu- 
liarity in  common  with  several  other  ornamental  forms  into 
which  this  material  is  worked.  On  a  central  line  at  the 
base  of  each  end  a  hole  is  drilled  diagonally  through  the 
corner  by  which  the  ornament  could  be  sewed  to  the  cloth- 
ing or  other  fabric  in  such  a  manner  that  the  thread  by  which 
it  was  fastened  in  place  would  be  concealed.  Other  orna- 
mental pieces,  of  such  form  as  not  to  admit  ot  these  concealed 
holes,  are  drilled  through  the  central  line  from  the  top,  the 
holes  being  so  conical  that  a  knot  at  the  end  of  a  cord 
drawn  through  the  hole  would  be  concealed,  and  the  same 
result  obtained,  that  is,  the  mode  of  fastening  would  be 
concealed. 

In  the  collection  of  Dr.  Griste,  of  Summit  County,  is  one 
of  these  ornamental  stones,  exhibiting  that  peculiar  polish 
which  shows  lone1  continued  use,  v\hile  the  striae  left  in 
drilling  the  diagonal  holes  are  not  worn  down  in  the  slightest 
degree. 

BEADS  AND  TUBES. 

Ornamental  beads,  sometimes  nearly  two  inches  in  diam- 
eter, and  flattened  upon  one  side,  composed  of  this  same 
material,  are  sparingly  found,  and  a  few  were  included  in 
the  exhibit.  Strings  of  similar  beads  are  seen  around  the 
necks  of  sculptured  figures  from  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
It  is  obvious  that  such  beads  would  be  worn  only  by  distin- 
guished personages,  and  on  state  occasions. 

Tubes  of  this  slate,  sometimes  entire,  but  more  frequently 
broken,  have  been  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  State. 
They  are  of  various   sizes,  and    many  of  them  are  as  perfect 


— 4:3— 

as  if  turned  in  a  lathe  and  bored  with  a  modern  drill. 
Unfinished  specimens  show  that  in  some  cases,  at  least,  the 
drilling  left  a  core  after  the  manner  of  the  action  of  a  diamond 
drill.  The  drill  was  doubtless  a  node  of  cane,  its  action 
assisted  by  sand  and  water. 

The  use  made  ot  these  tubes  is  not  clear,  but  the  words, 
pipe  and  tube,  have  originally  the  same  signification,  and 
the  earliest  record  of  tobacco  smoking  on  the  continent 
shows  that  it  was  done  by  the  use  of  tubes.  The  following 
is  quoted  from  a  small  vol  ume  entitled,  "A  Paper  of  Tobacco," 
"By  Joseph  Fume,"  published  at  London,  in  1839  : 

"Oviedo  appears  to  have  been  the  earliest  writer  on  the 
history  of  America,  who  mentions  the  word  tobacco,  and 
from  the  account  which  he  gives  of  the  ahumadas,  or  smok- 
ings  of  Hispaniola,  we  learn  that  the  word,  tabaco,  as  it  is 
spelled  by  him,  properly  signified  a  smoking-tube,  and  not 
the  plant  nor  the  stupor  which  was  the  result  of  the  Indian 
manner  of  smoking  it.  His  chapter  entitled,  '  Of  the 
Tabacos  or  Smokings  of  the  Indians  of  the  Island  of  His- 
paniola,' appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  second  edition, 
published  in  1535,  from  which  the  following  is  quoted : 
"The  Indians  inhabiting  this  island  have,  among  their  other 
evil  customs,  one  which  is  very  pernicious,  namely,  that  of 
smoking,  called  by-  them,  tobacco,  lor  the  purpose  of  pro- 
ducing insensibility.  This  they  effect  by  means  of  the 
smoke  of  a  certain  herb  which,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  is  of  a 
poisonous  quality,  though  not  poisonous  in  appearance.  * 
*  *  The  manner  in  which  they  use  it  is  as  follows  :  The 
caciques  and  principal  men  have  small  hollowed  sticks 
about  a  span  long  and  as  thick  as  the  little  finger;  they  are 
forked  in  the  manner  here  shown,  Y,  but  both  the  forks  and 
the  stalk  are  of  the  same  piece.  The  forked  ends  are 
inserted  in  the  nostrils  and  the  other  end  is  applied  to  the 
burning  leaves  of  the  herb,  which  is  rolled  up  in  the  manner 
of  pastils.  They  then  inhale  the  smoke  till  they  fall  down 
in  a  state  of  stupor  in  which  they  remain    as  if  intoxicated? 


—U— 

for  a  considerable  time.  Such  of  the  Indians  as  can  not 
procure  a  forked  stick,  use  a  reed  or  hollow  cane  for  the 
purpose  of  inhaling  the  smoke.'  " 

His  descriptions  show  that  the  smoke  was  taken  into  the 
lungs,  hence  the  speedy  intoxication  and  stupor  produced. 
This  practice  was  evidently  at  first  followed  by  Europeans, 
and  was  called  drinking  tobacco,  as  witness  the  following 
stanza  of  a  moralizing  tobacco-drinking  poet,  of  the  time 
of  James  I.: 

"  The  Indian  weed  withered  quite, 
Green  at  noon,  cut  down  at  night, 
Shows  thy  decay — all  flesh  is  hay, 
Thus  think,  then  drink  tobacco." 

These  quotations  help  to  an  understanding  of  the  use  of 
tubes  for  smoking,  and  suggest  a  reason  for  the  very  small 
bowls  of  very  many  of  the  pipes  into  which  the  tobacco  was 
placed  for  smoking.  Taken  directly  into  the  lungs,  the 
smoke  from  a  very  small  quantity  would  suffice. 

The  large,  slightly  trumpet-formed  pipes  from  the  Pacific 
Coast,  described  by  Dr.  Abbott,  and  the  similar  tubes  taken 
by  Prof.  Andrews  from  Ohio  mounds,  were  doubtless  used 
for  smoking,  and  probably  substantially  in  the  way  first 
described  by  Oviedo,  and  if  these  Ohio  stone  tubes  were 
used  for  the  same  purpose,  they  must  be  very  old.  When 
pipes  with  bowls  were  devised,  of  much  easier  construction, 
and  more  convenient  for  use,  they  would  certainly  supersede 
the  smoking-tubes.  These,  as  they  became  scarcer,  might 
become  more  highly  prized,  and  in  places,  be  retained  for 
sacred  and  ceremonial  uses,  as  were  flint  knives  by  the 
Hebrews  and  stone  axes  by  the  Romans.  Their  use  was,  in 
places  certainly,  continued  to  recent  times,  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  iron  mouth-piece  attached  to  one  of  the  specimens 
described  by  Dr.  Abbott. 

At  the  time  of  the  construction  of  the  Lake  Shore  Rail- 
road, a  pottery  tube  nearly  of  the  shape  and  size  of  the 
largest  tubes  figured  in  Dr.  Abbott's  report,  was  taken  from 


—45— 

a  mound  near  Collinwood,  east  of  Cleveland.  It  lias  a 
highly-polished  surface,  simulating  salt-glazing,  which  is 
probably  simply  the  result  of  long  use.  The  base  gradually 
diminishes  toward  the  smaller  end  and  about  three-fourths 
of  an  inch  from  it  is  much  reduced  by  a  square  offset.  In 
it  when  found  was  a  slightly  flattened  pottery  ball,  which 
would  drop  down  the  tube  until  stopped  by  this  offset.  It 
is  called  a  horn,  and  by  blowing  in  it,  a  sound  can  be  pro- 
duced audible  at  a  long  distance. 

The  fact  that  a  louder  sound  is  produced  when  the  ball  is 
in  the  tube,  and  the  mouth  of  the  tube  elevated,  favors  the 
idea  that  it  was  designed  as  a  horn.  This  interesting  relic 
belongs  to  F.  M.  Wait,  of  Northfield,  Summit  County,  and 
was  loaned  by  him  for  the  exhibition. 

BAIOTER  STONES,  BADGES,  OR  WANDS. 

These  are  made  from  the  slate  already  described,  all  highly 
polished  and  exhibit  great  varieties  of  form.  They  are  too 
fragile  to  bear  any  very  rough  usage  ;  are  all  of  a  symmetrical 
bilateral  form,  and  bored  at  the  center  with  great  accuracy  to 
fit  them  for  attachment  to  handles.  Some  of  them  are 
perfect  crescents,  but  the  gradual  transition  from  these 
through  pick-like  forms  to  specimens  quite  straight,  and 
from  these  to  the  winged  and  double-crescent  forms  renders 
it  improbable  that  any  were  intended  to  represent  the  crescent 
moon.  They  represent  no  animal  forms,  and  the  ornamental 
battle-axe,  previously  described,  is  the  only  attempt  I  have 
observed  to  imitate  any  implement  of  peace  or  war.  They 
can  not  be  connected  with  any  of  the  symbolic  forms  of  the 
old  world,  and  if  intended  to  be  symbolical,  they  belong  to 
a  sealed  book  of  human  history.  The  clew  to  their  signifi- 
cance has  not  been  found.  They  were  doubtless  used  in 
civil  or  religious  ceremonies,  which  were  held  in  high  con- 
sideration, as  is  evidenced  by  the  number  and  variety  of  the 
specimens  found,  and  by  the  great  labor  expended  in  their 
production.     Unfinished   specimens  show  that   large  blocks 


—46— 

were  sometimes  taken  and  carefully  chipped  away  to  a  com- 
paratively small  size.  Collectors  of  relics  should  remember 
that  one  rough,  unfinished  implement  which  many  would 
throw  aside  as  worthless,  is  often  of  more  value  than  many 
highly-prized  perfect  specimens.  It  may  help  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  primitive  art  not  to  be  learned  in  any  other  way. 
The  Indian  picture-writing,  it  is  believed,  throws  no  light 
upon  the  use  of  these  banner  stones,  and  they  probably  belong 
to  the  age  of  the  builders  of  the  mounds,  where  a  more 
dense,  stationary  and  peaceful  population  and  a  more 
advanced  organization  would  result  in  civic  and  religious 
ceremonials  not  practiced  by  hunting  tribes.  We  may 
imagine  the  old  priests  or  chiefs  carrying  these  badges  or 
wands  in  solemn  procession,  and  of  course  understanding 
their  significance,  while  we  speculate  in  vain  effort  to 
understand  them. 

A  broken  specimen  of  one  of  these  crescentic  forms  made 
of  green  gypsum,  has  been  recently  picked  up  in  Summit 
County.  This  material  is  so  fragile  as  to  clearly  indicate  that 
it  was  intended  only  for  ornamental  or  ceremonial  use. 

PIPES. 

Smoking  pipes  of  stone  and  of  pottery  of  a  great  variety 
of  forms  and  sizes  are  abundant  in  the  State,  and  were  well 
represented  in  the  exhibit.  In  the  State  cabinet  are  some 
forty  casts  of  elegantly  carved  specimens,  obtained  by  Squire 
&  Davis  from  Ohio  mounds.  Photographic  copies  of  these 
were  in  the  collection  exhibited,  and  the  remarkable  char- 
acter of  the  whole  find  is  shown  by  the  following  quotation 
from  Dr.  Rail's  report  on  the  Smithsonian  Archaeological 
Collection  : 

"Numerous  stone  pipes  of  a  peculiar  type  were  obtained 
many  years  ago,  by  Messrs.  Squire  &  Davis,  during  their 
survey  of  the  ancient  earthworks  of  the  State  of  Ohio.  They 
have  been  minutely  described  and  figured  by  them  in  the  first 
volume  of  'Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge.'    The 


— 4T— 

originals  of  these  remarkable  smoking  utensils  (presently  to 
be  described)  are  now  in  the  Blackmore  Museum,  at  Sails- 
burg,  England ;  but  the  National  Museum  possesses  casts  of 
them,  which  enable  visitors  to  become  acquainted  with  their 
character.  These  pipes  were  formerly  thought  to  be  chiefly 
made  of  a  kind  of  porphyry,  a  substance  which  by  its  hard- 
ness would  have  rendered  their  production  extremely 
difficult.  That  view,  however,  was  erroneous,  for  since  their 
transfer  to  the  Blackmore  Museum  they  have  been  carefully 
examined  and  partly  analyzed  by  Prof.  A.  H.  Church,  who 
found  them  to  consist  of  softer  materials,  such  as  compact 
slate,  argillaceous  iron  stone,  ferruginous  chlorite  and  cal- 
careous minerals.  Nevertheless  they  constitute  the  most 
remarkable  class  of  aboriginal  products  of  art  thus  far 
discovered ;  for  some  of  them  are  so  skillfully  executed  that 
a  modern  artist,  notwithstanding  his  far  superior  modern 
tools,  would  find  no  little  difficulty  in  reproducing  them. 

"Four  miles  north  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  there  lies  close  to 
the  Sciota  River,  an  embankment  of  earth  somewhat  in 
shape  of  a  square  with  strongly  rounded  angles  and  enclosing 
an  art  a  of  thirteen  acres,  over  which  twenty-three  mounds 
are  scattered,  without  much  regularity.  This  work  has  been 
called  "Mound  City,"  from  the  great  number  of  mounds 
within  its  precinct.  In  digging  into  the  mounds,  Squire  & 
Davis  discovered  hearths  in  many  of  them  which  furnished 
a  great  number  of  relics,  and  from  one  of  the  hearths  nearly 
two  hundred  stone  pipes  of  irregular  form  were  taken,  many 
of  which,  unfortunately, were  cracked  by  the  fire  or  otherwise 
badly  damaged.  The  occurrence  of  such  pipes,  however, 
was  not  confined  to  the  mound  in  question,  others  having 
been  found  elsewhere  in  Ohio,  and  likewise  in  mounds  of 
Indiana.  In  their  simple,  or  primitive  form,  they  present  a 
round  bowl  rising  from  the  middle  of  a  flat  and  somewhat 
curved  base,  one  side  of  which  communicates  by  means  of  a 
narrow  perforation,  usually  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  with  the  hollow  of  the  bowl  and  represents  the 
tube,  or  rather  the  mouth-piece  of  the  pipe,  while  the  other 


—48- 

u imperforated  end  forms  the  handle  by  which  the  smoker  held 
the  implement  and  approached  it  to  his  mouth.  A  remark- 
ably fine  specimen  of  this  kind  was  found  in  a  mound  of  an 
ancient  work  in  Liberty  township,  Ross  County,  (Fig.  177.) 
In  the  more  elaborate  specimens  from  Mound  City,  the  bowl 
is  formed,  in  a  few  instances,  in  imitation  of  the  human 
head,  but  generally  of  the  body  of  some  animal,  and  in  the 
latter  cases  the  peculiarities  of  the  species  which  have  served 
as  models  are  frequently  expressed  with  surprising  fidelity. 
The  human  heads,  undoubtedly  the  most  valuable  specimens 
of  the  series,  evidently  bear  features  characteristic  of  the 
Indian  race,  and  they  are  further  remarkable  for  the  head- 
dress, or  method  of  arranging  the  hair,  (Fig.  178.)  A  few 
of  the  heads  show  on  the  face  incised  ornamental  lines, 
obviously  intended  to  imitate  the  painting  or  tattooing  of 
the  countenance.  The  following  animals  have  been  recog- 
nized :  The  beaver,  (Fig.  179 ;)  the  otter,  with  a  fish  in  its 
mouth,  (Fig.  180  ;)  the  elk,  bear,  wolf,  panther,  wild-cat, 
raccoon,  opossum,  squirrel  and  sea-cow  (Manati,  Lamantin, 
Trichecus,  manatus,  Tin.)  Of  the  animal  that  is  supposed  to 
represent  the  sea-cow,  seven  carvings  have  been  found.  This 
inhabitant  of  tropical  waters  is  not  met  in  the  higher  lati- 
tudes of  North  America,  but  only  on  the  coast  of  Florida, 
which  is  many  hundred  miles  distant  from  Ohio.  The 
Florida  Indians  called  this  animal  the  "big  beaver,"  and 
hunted  it  on  account  of  its  flesh  and  bones.  More  frequent 
are  carvings  of  birds,  among  which  the  eagle,  hawk,  falcon, 
turkey-buzzard,  heron,  (Fig.  181  ;)  several  species  of  owls, 
the  raven,  swallow,  parrot,  duck,  and  other  land  and  water 
birds  have  been  recognized.  One  of  the  specimens  is  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  toucan,  a  tropical  bird  not  inhabiting 
the  United  States  ;  but  the  figure  is  not  of  sufficient  dis- 
tinctness to  identify  the  original  that  was  before  the  artist's 
mind,  and  it  would  not  be  safe,  therefore,  to  make  this  speci- 
men the  subject  of  far-reaching  speculations.  The  amphibious 
(?)  animals  likewise  have  their  representatives  in  the  snake, 
toad,  frog,    turtle   and    alligator.     One  specimen  shows  the 


—49— 

snake  coiled  around  the  bowl  of  the  pipe.  The  toads,  in 
particular,  are  faithful  imitations  of  nature.  Leaving  aside 
the  more  than  doubtful  toucan,  the  imitated  animals  belong, 
without  exception,  to  the  North  American  fauna,  and  there 
is,  moreover,  the  greatest  probability  that  the  sculptures  in 
question  were  made  in  or  near  the  present  State  of  Ohio, 
where,  in  corroboration,  of  this  view  a  few  unfinished  pipes 
of  the  described  character  have  occurred  among  the  com- 
plete articles. 

"Pipes  of  this  type  are  generally  of  rather  small  size,  and 
in  many  the  cavity  of  the  bowl  designed  for  holding  the 
narcotic  is  remarkable  for  its  insignificant  capacity.  These 
pipes  were  probably  smoked  without  a  stem,  the  narrowness 
of  the  perforations  in  their  necks  not  permitting  the  inser- 
tion of  anything  thicker  than  a  straw  or  a  very  thin  reed. 
Yet  most  of  the  pipes  of  earlier  date,  occurring  in  mounds 
or  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  are  provided  with  a  hole  of 
suitable  size  for  the  reception  of  a  stem.  A  very  remarkable 
stone  pipe  of  this  character,  obtained  during  the  survey  of 
the  Ohio  earthworks  by  Squire  &  Davis,  was  found  within 
an  ancient  enclosure  twelve  miles  below  the  city  of  Chilli- 
cothe.  It  represents  the  body  of  a  bird  wTith  a  human  head, 
exhibiting  strongly-marked  Indian  features,  (Fig.  182.)  The 
original,  not  having  been  exposed  to  the  action  of  the  fire, 
is  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation  and  retains  its 
original  beautiful  polish. 

"The  name  *  calumet  pipes '  has  been  given  to  large  stone 
pipes  which  were  smoked  with  a  stem,  and  are  usually  fash- 
ioned in  imitation  of  a  bird,  mammal  or  amphibian,  and 
sometimes  of  the  human  figure.  They  were  thus  called,  on 
account  of  their  bulk,  which  seemed  to  indicate  their  char- 
acter as  pipes  of  ceremony,  to  be  used  on  solemn  occasions. 
It  was  further  thought  these  pipes  had  not  been  the  property 
of  individuals,  but  that  of  communities,  a  view  which  does 
not  seem  to  be  altogether  correct,  since  some  have  been 
discovered  in  burial  mounds,  accompanying  a  single  skeleton. 


■50— 


—51— 

"A  pipe  of  the  kind  just  mentioned,  is  made  of  ferruginous 
sandstone,  and  represents,  rather  rudely,  a  human  figure 
with  a  snake  folded  around  its  neck,  (Fig.  183),  from  Paint 
Creek,  Ross  County.  Another  large  calumet  pipe,  carved 
in  imitation  of  a  quadruped  of  the  canine  family,  (probably 
a  wolf,)  consists  of  chlorite,  and  was  found  in  Ross  County." 

The  small  size  of  the  bowl  cavities  of  these  pipes  may  prob- 
ably be  explained  by  the  primitive  mode  of  smoking  already 
described,  for  which  a  very  small  quantity  of  tobacco  would 
suffice,  and  so  far  as  we  can  learn  the  primitive  use  of  all 
narcotics  and  intoxicants  was  designed  not  to  quiet  the 
nerves  or  produce  a  pleasurable  enjoyment  during  their  use, 
but  to  produce  the  complete  suspension  of  all  sensation,  and 
as  quickly  as  possible. 

These  artistically-wrought  pipes  from  the  mounds  show  a 
much  higher  degree  of  skill  than  was  shown  by  the  hunting 
tribes,  indicating  a  higher  culture  on  the  part  of  the  mound 
builders,  and  a  greater  advance  toward  civilization. 

Among  the  casts  in  the  State  collection  is  one  of  a  calumet 
pipe  representing  a  bird,  with  partially  expanded  wings, 
measuring  a  little  over  nine  by  twelve  inches.  This  was 
found  in  Mississippi. 

Near  Willoughby,  in  Lake  County,  is  a  site  of  an  Indian 
village  which  has  furnished  a  great  variety  of  relics.  A  very 
interesting  and  instructive  collection  of  pipes,  finished  and 
unfinished,  was  made  from  this  locality,  which  is  now  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum,  of  Central  Park,  New  York. 
These  show  that  water-worn  pebbles  were  selected,  exhibit- 
ing slightly  an  animal  form,  which  the  pipe-maker  pecked 
into  a  more  perfect  animal  shape  without  much  apparent 
design  of  imitating  any  particular  species.  These  were  the 
work  of  modern  Indians,  and  greatly  inferior  to  the  speci- 
mens obtained  from  the  mounds. 

Pottery  pipes  of  various  forms  are  more  sparingly  found, 
and  one  specimen  only  have  I  seen  from  hammered  copper. 
Pipes  of  catlinite,  the  sacred  pipe-stone  of  the  Indians,  are 
found,  but  they  seem  to  be  quite  modern. 


—  b'Z— 


HEMATITE. 


This  seems  to  have  been  esteemed  one  of  the  precious 
stones,  and  was  wrought  by  much  labor  into  many  forms. 
In  Mr.  Kinney's  contribution  were  several  highly  polished 
small  celts  or  axes,  but  whether  intended  as  ornamental 
tools  or  for  use,  it  is  hard  to  determine.  It  contained  also 
a  very  artistically-carved  image  of  the  beaver,  only  about 
one  inch  long,  and  considering  the  hardness  of  the  material, 
perhaps  the  most  perfect  specimen  of  carving  found  in  the 
State.  It  contained  also  several  highly  polished  pendants 
or  sinkers,  and  a  number  of  half  spheres  ot  this  material. 
These  were  worn  on  all  sides  by  rubbing,  and  probably  the 
abrasion  of  the  material  by  rubbing  furnished  one  of  the 
most  valued  of  paints.  There  are  indications  that  the  com- 
mon Ohio  iron  ores  were  used  for  paint,  and  that  the 
advantage  of  roasting  them  for  that  purpose  had  been 
learned. 

In  a  mound  at  the  top  of  a  hill  several  hundred  feet  high, 
opened  by  Mr.  Peter  Neff,  in  Knox  County,  a  considerable 
amount  of  roasted  iron  was  found  which  must  have  been 
taken  from  the  plain  below. 

BONE  AND  IRON  IMPLEMENTS. 

Messrs.  Bauder  and  Baldwin  exhibited  a  collection  of  bone 
bodkins,  awls  and  needles,  obtained  from  the  site  of  the 
Indian  village,  near  Willoughby,  already  mentioned.  This 
place  has  furnished  the  most  perfect  collection  of  bone  and 
horn  implements  of  any  place  in  the  State,  much  of  which 
was  collected  by  Mr.  Williams,  of  Chagrin  Palis.  Speimens 
of  deer's  horn  obtained  show  the  work  of  cutting  instru- 
ments operating  like  saws  by  which  the  thickest  part  of  the 
horn  was  cut  into  strips  longitudinally  effecting  a  great 
saving  of  material  and  adapting  it  to  the  production  of  small 
bodkins  and  needles.  The  bones  of  almost  all  animals  were 
utilized,  but  mainly  for  the  production  of  sharp-pointed 
instruments. 


—53— 

Mr.  Kinney's  collection  contained  many  specimens  of 
bears'  teeth  and  claws  perforated  to  be  strung  as  ornaments, 
and  several  long  strings  of  bone  and  shell  beads  ;  also  several 
perfect  imitations  of  bears'  claws  in  cannel  coal.  The  teeth 
and  claws  of  predaceous  animals  seem  to  have  been  highly 
prized  everywhere  as  ornaments,  and  were  probably  worn  as 
evidence  of  the  prowess  of  the  hunters  in  overcoming  these 
formidable  animals. 

COPPER  IMPLEMENTS. 

Col.  Charles  Whittlesey  has  collected  information  in  regard 
to  720  pre-historic  copper  relics  found  in  Ohio,  and  nearly 
all  of  these  were  taken  from  mounds.  The  number  of 
specimens  found  in  other  localities  is  so  small  that  we  may 
safely  assume  that  the  manufacture  of  implements  from  this 
material  was  confined  to  the  builders  of  the  mounds. 

It  was,  in  their  hands,  a  maleable  stone.  They  did  not 
understand  the  art  of  melting  it,  and  casting  objects  from 
it.  Laboriously  hammering  it  into  the  desired  forms,  it  was 
only  the  larger  fragments  that  could  be  put  to  the  best  uses 
and  with  much  waste  in  trimmings,  that  could  be  utilized 
only  for  beads  and  small  ornaments. 

This  mode  of  working  it  developed  a  quality  which  has 
puzzled  many  archaeologists.  It  gave  to  the  metal  a  degree 
of  hardness  which  it  never  acquires  under  the  ordinary  mode 
of  working  it,  and  resulted  in  better  cutting  tools  than 
could  be  made  by  castings  unless  the  copper  was  alloyed 
with  other  metals. 

.Relics  of  this  metal  are  so  highly  prized  that  the  owners 
are  reluctant  to  take  the  risk  of  sending  them  to  distant 
localities,  and  but  few  specimens  were  exhibited.  Several 
were  exhibited  by  Mr.  Kinney,  among  them  a  very  beautiful 
axe  in  the  form  of  a  modern  Indian  tomahawk,  the  history 
of  which  was  not  given  ;  but  it  is  pretty  certainly  not  the 
work  of  the  Indians  or  of  the  mound  builders. 


— 5-i— 

In  the  collection  of  the  Ohio  University,  there  was  a 
copper  adz,  chisel,  and  bodkin,  taken  from  a  small  mound  in 
Summit  County,  with  a  number  of  stone  implements  of 
peculiar  construction,  a  large  stone  pipe,  many  large  sheets 
of  mica,  and  a  large  piece  of  galena.  These  articles  thus 
grouped  show  a  system  of  exchange  by  which  articles  were 
secured  from  distant  localities 

But  a  very  small  part  of  Ohio  mounds  have  been  thor- 
oughly explored,  and  a  completion  of  the  explorations  will 
doubtless  increase  very  largely  our  knowledge  of  the  pre- 
historic copper  implements  of  the  State. 

POTTERY. 

The  remains  of  pottery  in  the  form  of  fragments  are  very 
abundant  in  the  State,  while  perfectly  preserved  vessels  are 
comparatively  rare.  They  are  all  of  coarse  character,  im- 
perfectly burned,  and  generally  composed  of  clay  and 
powdered  shell.  Specimens  obtained  from  a  rock  shelter  in 
Summit  County,  show  the  use  of  powdered  quartz  pebbles  of 
the  adjacent  carboniferous  conglomerate,  mixed  with  clay. 
These  exhibit  markings  on  the  outside  such  as  would  be 
produced  by  beating  the  inner  bark  of  the  basswood,macerated 
in  water,  until  the  fibres  were  crushed  and  separated,  and 
using  this  as  lining  to  a  cavity  or  model  to  be  plastered  with 
the  prepared  clay.  The  upper  margin  is  generally  turned 
outward  aud  pierced  with  holes  for  handles,  made  while  the 
material  was  soft  and  plastic.  An  entire  vessel  from  the 
collection  of  the  Fire  Lands  Historical  Society,  of  Norwalk, 
exhibited  at  Philadelphia,  indicates  the  use  of  grass  as 
a  lining  to  the  mold  in  which  it  was  formed. 

There  were  two  perfect  vessels  in  Mr.  Kinney's  collection 
in  New  Orleans,  one  in  the  form  of  a  small  basin,  the  other 
a  large  vase. 

The  forms  and  texture  of  the  pottery  from  all  parts  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  are  very  much  alike,  but  with  an  increased 
tendency  to  the  west  and  southwest  to  adopt  the  human  and 


— 00 — 

animal  forms  so  abundant  in  iTew  Mexico.  Specimens 
obtained  in  Ohio  are  mostly  found  in  rock  shelters  and  in 
mounds. 

The  earliest  manufactured  vessels  everywhere  were  of 
pottery,  and  the  study  of  ancient  ceramic  art  is  especially 
interesting  to  the  archaeologist.  Similar  forms  are  found 
everywhere,  and  are  often  continued  in  more  costly  material. 
In  many  instances  these  forms  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
time  when  all  vessels  were  formed  of  natural  products.  The 
delicate  long-necked  bottles  or  vases,  now  made  of  Bohe- 
mian glass,  are  substantially  of  the  same  form  as  the  orthodox 
whiskey  bottle  of  forty  years  ago  ;  are  exact  copies  in  glass 
of  the  pottery  water  coolers  now  made  in  India,  Africa  and 
South  America,  of  which  many  specimens  were  exhibited  at 
Philadelphia,  and  which  are  found  in  the  earliest  collections 
of  pottery  known.  All  are  imitations  of  the  earliest  bottle 
used — the  gourd  with  its  long  neck.  The  Rhyton,  brought 
to  the  Greeks  from  Egypt,  and  of  which  substantially  similar 
forms  were  exhumed  by  Schlieman,  perpetuated  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  in  silver  and  other  costly  material,  was 
a  drinking  cup  which  could  not  be  set  down  until  its  contents 
were  emptied.  Its  origin  is  clearly  preserved  in  its  name, 
"drinking  horn,"  and  its  use,  in  the  slang  phrase,  "taking  a 
horn  ;"  and  the  practice  still  preserved  in  many  places  in 
drinking  bouts  of  reversing  the  cup  upon  the  table  as  an 
indication  that  it  is  empty.  Originally  it  was  a  veritable 
horn  which  could  stand  only  in  a  reversed  position.  The 
ancient  vases  found  in  America,  in  pottery,  and  in  Europe 
in  silver-and  other  costly  material,  with  small  rounded  bases 
which  required  tripods  for  their  support,  wTould  never  have 
taken  such  forms  as  original  inventions.  They  were  imita- 
tions of  vases  made  from  the  shells  of  nuts  and  other  natural 
productions.  Hence  similar  forms  found  in  widely  separated 
localities,  do  not  indicate  community  of  race  or  commercial 
intercourse,  but  that  man  everywhere  was  at  first  dependent 
upon  natural  productions,  which  he  adapted  to  his  wants, 
and  afterward  imitated,  and  gradually  modified  their  forms. 


-56- 


SHELLS. 


Fresh  and  salt  water  shells  were  largely  utilized  by  the 
primitive  inhabitants  of  the  State.  The  sharp  edges  of  the 
fresh  water  muscles  made  them  valuable  as  knives  and 
scrapers,  and  the  contents  of  mounds  show  that  they  were 
used  as  spoons,  cups  for  holding  paint  and  other  articles. 
From  the  large  salt-water  univalves  they  made  excellent 
dippers,  and  inscribed  circular  ornamental  disks  which  were 
apparently  worn  upon  the  breast  and  were  often  buried  with 
the  dead.  They  were  favorite  material  for  the  beads,  of 
which  many  are  found  preserved  in  graves,  and  would 
naturally  be  used  for  a  variety  of  purposes,  some  of  which 
may. not  be  apparent  to  us. 

ROCK  SHELTERS. 

Caves  adapted  to  human  habitation  are  very  rare  in  Ohio, 
but  rock  shelters,  which  would  afford  protection  from  the 
weather,  are  abundant.  These  have  been  very  inadequately 
explored.  Every  rocky  projection  under  which  a  benighted 
hunter  would  seek  protection,  if  there  is  a  dry  surface  below 
it,  will,  on  examination,  show  evidences  of  human  habitation, 
and  sometimes  of  a  habitation  greatly  prolonged.  Such  a 
rock  shelter  in  Summit  County,  already  referred  to,  was 
explored  by  me  some  years  ago,  and  a  description  contributed 
to  the  American  Antiquarian.  As  this  may  be  regarded  as  a 
typical  rock  shelter,  and  a  description  of  it  may  lead  to  other 
explorations,  the  greater  part  of  the  communication  to  the 
Antiquarian  is  here  copied  : 

"In  the  eastern  part  of  Boston  township,  the  outcrop  of 
the  carboniferous  conglomerate  exhibits  bold  bluffs,  fissured 
with  ravines,  with  large  masses  of  detached  rocks  at  the 
base  of  the  bluffs,  where  the  rock  has  been  undermined,  and 
broken  by  its  own  weight,  or  else  detached  and  pushed  out 
of  place  by  the  ice.  So-called  caves,  which  are  simply  long 
fissures  in  the  rocks,  are  abundant,  often  with  springs  of 
pure   water   at  the   bottom,  while  the  margin  and  detached 


—57— 

rocks  afford  shelters  which  would  be  attractive  places  for  ■ 
residences  to  those  unable  to  build  comfortable  dwellings. 
Among  these  detached  rocks  is  one  shelter  composed  of  two 
large  blocks,  twenty  or  more  feet  in  diameter,  separated 
about  fifteen  feet  with  a  huge  block  resting  upon  the  top  at 
the  height  of  about  twelve  feet,  making  a  large,  perfectly 
protected  room,  open  only  at  the  north  and  south,  and  the 
northern  opening  perfectly  protected  from  storms  by  its  close 
proximity  to  the  adjacent  bluff.  Such  a  rock  shelter  it  is 
evident  would  afford  a  much  better  family  dwelling  than 
could  be  easily  erected  without  good  cutting  tools,  and  would 
certainly  be  occupied  by  people  having  the  characteristics  of 
our  native  races.  The  abundant  springs  of  water,  the 
abundance  of  game  to  be  found  in  this  wood-covered,  broken 
region,  not  far  from  the  Cuyahoga  River,  which  was  one  of 
their  channels  of  communication,  would  be  sure  to  attract 
occupants. 

•'The  exploration  of  this  shelter  was  made  in  the  early 
part  of  June,  1878.  After  removing  a  few  inches  of  vege- 
table mold,  a  mixture  of  ashes  and  earth  was  reached  extend- 
ing to  the  depth  of  from  four  and  a  half  to  five  feet  at  the 
bottom,  filling  fissures  and  covering  rock  fragments  which 
originally  rested  on  the  floor  of  the  cave,  and  which  the 
occupants  did  not  attempt  to  remove.  These  scattered 
blocks  covered  the  sandy  debris  of  the  conglomerate  and 
were  gradually  buried  beneath  the  accumulated  deposits  of 
ashes  and  dirt,  the  evidences  of  long-continued  occupancy. 

"The  whole  of  this  material  was  filled  with  evidences  of 
the  use  of  the  place  as  a  human  residence — pottery,  bones, 
shells,  and  stone  implements.  In  the  deposit  of  these  there 
was  no  sudden  transition.  The  bones  near  the  top  were  in 
a  good  state  of  preservation ;  those  that  had  not  been 
changed  by  the  fire,  not  blackened,  but  colored  slightly 
yellow  by  lapse  of  time.  They  became  darker  and  less 
abundant  as  the  excavation  was  carried  deeper,  and  sub- 
stantially disappeared  before  the  bottom  of  the  excavation 


—58— 

was  reached,  showing  that  the  earliest  occupancy  was  so 
long  ago  that  the  bones  in  the  dry  shelter  had  been  con- 
sumed by  time. 

"Over  two  hundred  and  fifty  fragments  of  pottery  were 
collected.  This  had  been  manufactured  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood,  for  it  was  composed  of  clay  in  which  had 
been  mixed  coarsely  pulverized  fragments  of  the  quartz 
pebbles  of  the  conglomerate.  It  was  all  coarse  without  any 
attempt  at  ornamentation  for  the  sake  of  ornament.  The 
outside  of  most  of  it  and  the  inside  of  a  part  of  it  was 
minutely  marked  by  sharply-defined  depressions  or  casts, 
not  the  marks  of  basket  work  or  braided  grass,  but  such  as 
would  be  produced  if  a  mold  for  the  formation  of  a  vessel 
had  been  lined  with  the  macerated  and  beaten  bark  of  the 
elm  or  basswood.  The  mode  of  manufacture  indicated  is  as 
follows :  A  cavity  was  formed  in  earth  or  sand,  ot  the  form 
of  the  outside  of  the  vessel ;  a  coating  of  bark  was  prepared 
by  macerating  in  water,  beating  it  with  stones  until  the 
fibers  were  partially  separated,  and  the  whole  mass 
rendered  soft  and  plastic.  With  this  the  cavity  was  lined 
and  then  plastered  with  the  prepared  clay.  After  it  had 
sufficiently  dried,  the  whole  was  lifted  out  of  the  mould  and 
ultimately  burned  in  the  fire.  In  other  cases  a  mold  was 
formed  of  the  form  of  the  inside  of  the  proposed  vessel, 
covered  with  bark,  and  the  clay  plastered  upon  the  outside 
of  it.  This  of  course  results  in  leaving  the  bark  markings 
on  the  inside  of  the  vessel. 

"Three  forms  of  the  rim  or  upper  edge  of  the  vessels  were 
observed,  one  terminating  abruptly  without  any  curve,  or 
angle ;  one  with  an  outer  angle  about  three-fourths  of  an 
inch  from  the  margin,  and  one  with  a  regular  outward  curve. 
Small  holes  were  made  in  the  pottery,  when  soft,  near  the 
edge  of  the  rim,  and  in  one  fragment  a  hole  had  been  drilled 
of  a  conical  form,  after  it  was  burned,  probably — certainly 
after  it  was  dry.  The  pottery  near  the  bottom  of  the  exca- 
vation was  less  abundant,  heavier  and  coarser,  but  made  in  a 
similar  manner. 


—50— 

"The  stone  implements  were  abundant,  but  most  of  them 
rude  and  coarse,  only  eleven  flint  or  chert  implements,  and 
among  these  two  small  perfect  arrow  points,  one  fragment 
of  a  spear  or  knife,  two  scrapers  and  one  rimmer;  the  others 
were  flakes  or  irregular  fragments. 

"There  was  one  fragment  of  a  polished  stone  implement- 
This  was  the  bit  of  a  flat-sided  celt  or  gouge,  which  was  of 
especial  interest  from  the  fact  that  it  had  been  broken  at  the 
edge,  and  repaired  by  bringing  the  nicked  part  down  to  an 
edge;  this  was  done  by  pecking  out  the  substance  of  the 
stone  in  a  groove  running  back  a  little  over  an  inch  till  a 
new  edge  was  obtained  by  a  depression  in  the  bit.  The 
repaired  portion  was  not  polished. 

"There  was  one  fragment  of  a  polished  granite  hammer, 
several  water-worn  boulders,  evidently  gathered  for  hammer- 
stones,  fourteen  flakes  from  conglomerate  pebbles,  and  sixteen 
from  water-worn  drift  pebbles.  Both  of  these  materials 
were  utilized  by  striking  a  slice  from  one  side,  wThich  would 
naturally  produce  a  cutting  edge  on  the  side  opposite  to  that 
on  which  the  breaking  force  was  applied.  Oblate  forms  of 
these  pebbles  were  selected,  as  they  would  yield  a  better 
shaped  flake.  One  wrought  but  unfinished  stone  implement 
was  found  of  the  form  called  by  some,  'shuttles,'  but  unpol- 
ished and  without  perforations.  It  was  from  the  material  of 
the  local  shales. 

"The  most  abundant  of  the  stone  implements  were  cutting 
tools  or  knives.  Of  these,  seventy-five  were  gathered,  made 
from  the  local  shales  and  the  shales  of  the  drift.  They  were 
all  primitive  forms  of  the  stone  knife,  the  material  split 
in  such  manner  as  to  secure  a  cutting  edge,  with  the  least 
labor,  and  without  any  attempt  to  secure  any  particular  form, 
some  showing  that  after  the  cutting  edge  had  been  dulled 
by  use,  it  was  sharpened  by  blows  upon  the  edge. 

"Besides  these  there  were  about  twenty  rock  fragments 
apparently  broken  out  for  rude  scrapers  or  as  a  material 
from  which  to  make  cutting"  tools. 


—60— 

"All  showed  a  meagre  supply  of  material,  and  but  very 
slight  skill  in  adapting  it  to  use.  The  great  bulk  of  the 
material  was  from  the  immediate  neighborhood,  the  pebbles 
of  the  conglomerate  and  of  the  drift  and  the  shales  which 
crop  out  in  the  valley. 

"JSTot  a  single  article  was  found  designed  for  ornament,  nor 
was  there  any  attempt  to  ornament  any  of  the  articles  found. 
Everything  seemed  adapted  to  the  necesssities  of  the  lowest 
savage  life. 

"The  relative  proportions  of  the  different  kinds  of  imple- 
ments, and  the  fact  that  the  most  of  those  of  polished  stone 
and  chert  were  fragments,  and  the  mode  of  repairing  one  of 
these  fragments,  indicate  that  the  crude  forms  alone  were  of 
home  production,  while  the  others  were  either  picked  up 
from  the  ground,  or  obtained  Irom  other  tribes. 

"An  abundance  of  bone  fragments  indicated  the  large 
use  of  animal  food.  Every  shaft-bone,  and  the  lower  jaws 
of  all  the  larger  animals  were  so  broken  that  every  particle 
of  the  marrow  could  be  extracted,  and  there  was  a  rude 
attempt  to  fashion  a  few  of  the  bone  fragments  into  useful 
forms.  Over  a  half-bushel  of  these  fragments  was  collected, 
and  from  the  meagre  supply  of  materials  for  tools,  it  was 
quite  remarkable  that  no  more  use  was  made  of  these 
fragments. 

"Among  the  bones  could  be  identified  those  of  the  bear, 
the  wolf,  the  beaver,  the  hedgehog,  the  deer,  the  buffalo,  the 
raccoon,  the  skunk,  the  chipmunk  and  the  fox.  There  were 
a  number  of  the  bones  of  birds,  of  which  those  of  the  turkey 
and  large  blue  herron  were  probably  identified.  A  number 
of  mussel  shells  from  the  Cuyahoga  were  also  found.  In  the 
fragments  of  the  jaws  and  in  the  whole  jaws  the  teeth  were 
ordinarily  in  place,  showing  no  attempt  to  use  these  as  orna- 
ments or  otherwise.  The  fire  seemed  to  have  been  built 
near  the  center  of  the  shelter,  and  the  bulk  of  the  bone 
fragments  were  found  upon  the  west  side,  and  of  the  pottery 
upon  the  east,  showing  the  ordinary  savage  division  of  labor, 


—61— 

the  care  of  the  cooked  food  being  given  to  those  on  one  side 
of  the  shelter  and  that  of  the  cooking  and  cooking  utensils 
to  those  occupying  the  other  side.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
imagine  that  the  latter  was  the  quarter  of  the  women." 

HUMAN  EFFIGIES. 

Effigies  of  the  human  face  and  figure,  carved  in  stone,  are 
abundant  in  Ohio  relics.  An  entire  figure  in  a  sitting  posi- 
tion laboriously  worked  out  of  granite  and  with  marked 
Indian  features,  was  exhibited  by  Mr.  Kinney,  and  called  an 
"Idol,"  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  deserves  that  name, 
unless  it  is  used  in  its  primitive  sense,  meaning  simply  an 
image  and  not  suggesting  any  religious  worship.  Children 
and  savages  everywhere  make  early  attempts  to  delineate 
the  human  figure,  and  with  results  remarkably  similar. 
Attempts  to  carve  the  human  figure  soon  follow  the  attempt, 
involving  greater  labor,  but  producing  much  more  satisfac- 
tory results,  for  savage  artistic  skill  is  never  equal  to  giving 
any  roundness  or  projection  to  a  drawing.  A  pretended 
savage  drawing  that  attempts  to  do  this  may  pretty  safely  be 
set  down  as  a  fraud  and  the  work  of  one  who  has  learned 
something  of  the  laws  of  perspective. 

Several  images  have  been  obtained  from  Stark  County,  one 
a  grotesque  figure  carved  in  variegated  marble  and  represented 
as  obtained  in  sinking  a  well  and  at  the  depth  of  twelve 
feet,  aud  below  a  stratum  of  very  compact  yellow  clay.  It 
was  discovered  in  a  bucket  of  boulders  when  brought  to  the 
surface  from  the  bottom  of  the  well,  and  believed  by  all 
present  to  be  taken  from  the  bottom.  If  really  found  in 
such  a  place,  it  would  carry  back  the  life  of  the  sculptor  to 
the  age  of  the  drift.  All  who  have  seen  it  seem  to  have 
no  doubt  of  its  being  a  work  of  art,  but  its  very  crude 
character,  as  shown  by  an  engraving  from  a  photograph, 
suggests  the  possibility  that  the  form  is  the  result  ot 
accident.     (A  wood-cut  of  this  image  is  here  introduced.) 


62— 


the  evening,  aiu 


The  probabilities  are  so  much 
against  the  finding  of  a  carved  image 
in  such  a  position,  that  it  would  be 
more  reasonable  to  suppose,  if  a 
genuine  carving,  that  it  was  loosened 
from  the  soil  near  the  surface,  and 
dropped  without  being  observed  into 
the  well. 

A  tew  years  ago,  workmen,  in  dig- 
ging a  well,  in  Hudson,  brought  up 
from  a  depth  of  about  eighty  feet  in 
compact  blue  drift  clay,  a  live  frog, 
which  they  were  sure  they  dug  out 
at  that  depth.  One  of  its  legs  had 
been  cut  off  apparently  by  a  mowing 
machine.  Its  life  in  the  well  was 
evidently  measured  by  a  part  of  the 
time  between  cessation  of  work  in 
ommencement  of  work  in  the  morning. 


Quite  an  artistically  carved 
head  in  sandstone  was  dug  up 
while  opening  the  Sandy  & 
Beaver  Canal,  in  Columbiana 
County,  which  now  belongs  to 
J.  F.  Benner  &  Son,  of  New 
Lisbon,  a  cut  of  which  is  here 
given  ;  and  a  carving  in  sand- 
stone picked  up  on  the  surface 
in  Norristown,  Carroll  County, 
now  in  the  cabinet  of  G.  G.  B. 
Greenwood,  of  Minerva,  shows 
characteristic  Indian   features. 

These  are  illustrated  in  a  pamphlet  published  by  Col.  Charles 

Whittlesey. 


—63— 

Many  other  carvings  of  images  and  faces  have  been  col- 
lected, but  none  of  them  have  any  special  significance,  except 
a  single  specimen  to  be  heieafter  described.  They  do  not 
exhibit  that  degree  of  artistic  skill  which  would  make  them 
reliable  evidence  of  race  or  tribal  characteristics.  They 
show  how  much  work,  with  poor  tools,  was  expended  in  the 
production  of  images,  having  no  form  or  comeliness  to  make 
them  worthy  of  admiration,  but  which  were  doubtless 
esteemed  by  the  artists  and  their  contemporaries  as  remark- 
able triumphs  of  artistic  skill. 

Mr.  Peter  Neft,  of  Gambier,  has  a  mask-like  face,  carved 
in  sandstone,  which  was  plowed  up  in  a  field  in  Jackson 
township,  Coshocton  County,  in  1851.  It  measures  3Jx2f 
inches,  not  including  two  projections  or  blunt  horns  rising 
on  each  side  of  the  top  of  the  head.  It  is  of  especial  interest 
from  its  close  resemblance  to  similar  faces  worn  on  the  breast 
of  priest-like  personages  represented  on  Central  American 
sculptures,  of  which  illustrations  are  given  by  Bancroft  in 
his  "Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States."  In  his  illustrations 
these  face-ornaments  are  in  one  instance  suspended  by  a 
string  of  very  large  beads,  apparently  quite  similar  to  the 
large  metamorphic  slate  beads  found  in  this  State,  and 
previously  described. 

The  projections  from  the  top  of  Mr.  NefFs  specimen  were 
plainly  intended  for  purposes  of  suspension,  and  if  suspended 
from  a  string  of  these  large  Ohio  beads  the  whole  would  be 
a  complete  repetition  of  the  ornament  figured  by  Bancroft. 
A  precisely  similar  face,  except  having  only  one  projection 
from  the  top  of  the  head,  has  been  found  in  Missouri.  A 
cut  3-5  size  of  Mr.  left's  specimen  is  here  inserted. 


•64— 


FIRE  HEARTHS. 

In  all  parts  of  the  State  are  found  hearths  formed  of  rough 
stones,  laid  snugly  side  by  side,  and  generally  several  feet 
square.  They  are  usually  in  groups,  and  show  the  long- 
continued  action  of  tire.  They  are  the  sites  of  ancient 
village  communities  and  encampments,  and  the  abundance 
of  relics  about  them  indicate  long-continued  occupancy. 
Along  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  above  Portsmouth,  Mr.  Thomas 
W.  Kinney  has  found  such  hearths,  disclosed  by  the 
encroachment  of  the  river,  which  are  now  six  and  eight  feet 
beneath  the  surface ;  and  Col.  Whittlesey  reports  such 
hearths  fifteen  feet  below  the  surface,  indicating  very  great 
antiquity. 

PICTURE- WRITING  AND  INSCRIBED  ROCKS. 

Col.  Charles  Whittlesey,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  has  given 
more  attention  to  the  study  of  these  remains  than  any  other 
man  in  the  State,  and  by  his  permission  the  following 
extracts  from  a  chapter  on  ancient  rock  sculptures,  prepared 
by  him  for  the  Centennial  report,  are  here  copied  : 


—65— 

"In  many  places  within  the  State  rude  effigies  of  man  and 
animals  have  been  observed,    chiseled   or    picked  into  the 
natural  surface,  of  the  rocks.     They  are  most  numerous   in 
the   eastern   half  of  the    State,  where  the  grits   of  the  coal 
series  furnish  large  blocks  or  perpendicular  faces  of  sandrock, 
which  are  easily  cut,  and  which  are,  at  the  same  time,  im- 
perishable.   These  surfaces  are  never  prepared  for  inscriptions 
by  artificial  smoothing.     The  figures  are  sunk  into  the  stone 
by  some  sharp-pointed  tool  like  a  pick,  whick  has  left  the 
impression  of  its  point  similar  to  the  rough- hewn  stone  of 
our  masonry.     This  tool  has  not  been  found  in  the  form  of 
a  pick,  and  was  probably  only  a  small  angular  stone,  held  in 
the  hand  and  used  as  a   chipper  until  the  points  and  angles 
were  worn   off.     Many  artificial   stones   of  flint,   trap,   and 
greenstone  are  seen  in  all  large  collections,  from  two  to  four 
inches  in  diameter,  evidently  worn  into  a  partially  rounded 
form  by  blows  that  have  chipped  off*  the  projecting  corners. 
Some  are  quite  thoroughly  rounded  and  even  polished  like 
the  spherical    balls.      Such  balls,   sometimes  called    "sling- 
stones"  or   "slung-shots,"   could,  in   their  rough   condition, 
have  answered  the  purpose  of  a  picking  tool,  at  the  same 
time  being  itself  brought   into  shape  for  a  weapon  or  an 
ornament.     Such  contrivances,  to   save  labor  by  accomplish- 
ing two  purposes  at  once,  are  visible  in  other  fabrications  of 
the  early  races.     Rude  picks  of  the  early  races  in   Europe 
have  been  found,  which   were  made  by  inserting  a  pointed 
stone   in  the   prong   of  a  deer's  horn.     Such  an  implement 
seems  to  be  required  to  finish  some  of  the  channeling  observed 
on  some  of  our  rocks,  and  may  yet  be  found.     How  ancient 
the  intaglios  are  can  not  yet  be  determined,  but  there  is  one 
instance  at  Independence,  Cuyahoga  County,  where  soil  had 
accumulated  over  them   to  a  depth  of  one  to  one  and  a  half 
feet,  on  which  were  growing  trees  of  the  usual  size  in  that 
region.     The    Western   Reserve  Historical  Society  has  pro- 
cured several  tracings   of  them   on   muslin,   of  the   size  of 
nature,  which  were  forwarded  for  exhibition. 


—m— 

"It  has  been  found  that  sketches,  even  by  good  artists,  are 
so  deficient  in  accuracy  as  to  be  of  little  value.  By  clearing 
out  the  channels  sunk  in  the  rock,  painting  them  heavily, 
and  pressing  a  sheet  of  muslin  into  the  freshly-painted 
depressions,  an  exact  outline  is  obtained.  This  is  pho- 
tographed to  the  size  intended  for  engraving,  and  thus  the 
reduced  copy  remains  an  accurate  fac  simile  of  the  original. 
Those  which  are  mentioned  below  were  traced  and  reduced 
in  this  manner. 

"  Track  Rocks  Near  Barnesville,  Belmont 
County,  Ohio. 

"In  1857  or  1858,  Mr.  Thomas  Kite,  of  Cincinnati,  exam- 
ined the  'track  rocks'  near  Barnesville,  and  took  casts  of 
some  of  the  sculptured  figures.  Jas.  W.  Ward,  Esq.,  of  the 
same  city,  soon  afterward  made  a  detailed  sketch,  which  he 
caused  to  be  engraved  and  circulated.  In  1869  Dr.  J. 
Salisbury  and  myself  made  a  visit  to  the  place  with  a  view 
to  get  a  tracing  on  cloth,  but  were  compelled  to  give  it  up 
for  want  of  time.  An  arrangement  was  made  with  Dr.  Jas. 
W.  Walton,  of  Barnesville,  to  take  tracing  for  this  Society, 
which,  however,  was  not  received  until  the  fall  of  1871.  The 
discussion  which  took  place  at  the  Indianapolis  meeting  of 
the  American  Association,  in  August,  1871,  was  based  upon 
Mr.  Ward's  sketch,  which  had  been  made  with  much  care, 
he  being  not  only  an  artist  but  an  antiquarian. 

"This  was  reproduced,  with  a  detailed  description,  by  Mr. 
Ward,  in  the  first  number  of  the  American  Anthropological 
Journal,  issued  in  January,  1872,  at  New  York.  When  Di\ 
Walton's/ac  simile  tracings,  size  of  nature,  were  received,  it 
was  evident  that  notwithstanding  the  care  exercised  by  Mr. 
Ward,  there  were  important  omissions,  which  destroyed  the 
value  of  the  discussions  at  Indianapolis,  based  upon  his 
sketch.  It  is  now  conceded  that  eopies  of  such  sculptures 
must  be  made  by  casts,  squeezes,  or  tracings,  in  order  to  be 
reliable.     In  the  different  representations  that  have  appeared 


—67— 

of  the'Dighton  Rock/  the  supposed  Grave  Creek  stone,  the 
'Big  Indian  Rock,'  on  the  Susquehanna,  and  the  'Independ- 
ence Stone,'  of  this  county,  something  material  is  omitted,  or 
palpably  distorted.  Mere  sketches  are  of  little  or  no  ethno- 
logical value.  I  think  the  mode  adopted  by  us  leaves  little 
room  for  errors,  either  in  size  or  proportion,  but  there  may  be 
in  the  manner  or  aspect  that  belongs  to  every  object,  and 
which  is  known  by  the  plain  but  forcible  expression,  'life- 
like.' The  rock  was  first  thoroughly  cleaned  of  the  moss  and 
dirt,  as  Dr.  Walton  explains  in  his  letter  accompanying  the 
tracings.  All  of  the  artificial  depressions  were  then  filled 
with  paint,  and  a  sheet  of  muslin,  covering  the  entire  block, 
pressed  into  the  sculptured  figures.  This  coarse  grit  is  so 
nearly  imperishable  that  whatever  distinct  markings  were 
originally  cut  upon  it  are  doubtless  there  now  and  are  not  per- 
ceptibly injured  by  exposure.  These  groups  present  the  first 
instance  among  the  rock  inscriptions  of  Ohio, where  it  can  be 
said  that  we  now  have  complete  and  entire,  in  their  primitive 
condition,  all  the  figures  that  are  capable  of  being  traced,not 
mutilated  by  man,  or  obliterated  by  the  elements.  Dr. 
Walton's  description  will  now  be  both  intelligible  and 
interesting : 

"  'The  copies  I  send  you  exhibit  every  definite  figure  those  rocks  contain,and 
indeed  many  more  than  will  be  noticed  by  a  casual  observer  of  them. 

"  'Some  of  them  were  discovered  only  after  removing  the  lichens  of  ages; 
others  after  glancing  the  eye  along  the  surface  of  the  rocks  from  every  point 
of  the  compass;  and  others  after  the  sun  had  declined  low  in  the  west,  casting 
dim  shadows  over  depressions  too  shallow  to  be  seen  before.  And  there  are 
many  indistinct  impressions  on  each  of  the  rocks  that  could  not  be  copied — 
these  resemble  the  indefinite  remains  of  innumerable  tracks  of  men  and 
animals,  overlying  each  other,  as  may  be  seen  on  our  highways,  after  a  rain 
has  effaced  almost  every  outline. 

u  'Upon  examining  the  print  of  the  smaller  rock  it  will  appear  that  two 
men,  each  accompanied  by  a  dog,  seem  to  have  passed  over  it  in  opposite 
directions.  This  idea  has  never,  so  far  as  I  have  learned,  occurred  to  any 
person  who  has  heretofore  examined  the  rocks;  the  figures  being  regarded  as 
distinct  and  disconnected,  as  they  appear  on  the  larger  stone.  I  did  not  catch 
the  idea  until  after  I  had  painted  all  the  distinct  figures  on  this  stone,  and  had 
impressed    the   cloth   on  the  paint,  when,  upon  removing  and  examining  the 


—68— 

print,  I  found,  say,  first  a  right  foot  print,  then  a  left  one  at  its  appropriate 
position,  then  a  right  foot  where  it  should  be,  but  the  succeeding  left  one 
wanting. 

"  'This  set  me  on  a  more  careful  examination  of  the  motley  indentations 
covering  this  part  of  the  rock  for  traces  of  the  lost  feet,  and  it  was  not  a  great 
while  before  I  found  sufficient  remains  of  just  what  was  wanting,  and  at  their 
appropriate  places,  but  in  exceedingly  indistinct  impressions. 

"  'The  rude  cuts  of  human  faces,  part  of  the  human  feet,  the  rings,  stars, 
serpents,  and  some  others  are  evidently  works  of  art,  as  in  the  best  of  them 
the  marks  of  the  engraving  instrument  are  to  be  seen;  and  it  is  barely  possible 
that  the  residue  of  those  figures  were  carved  by  the  hands  of  men;  however, 
I  must  say  that  the  works  of  the  best  sculptors  do  not  surpass  the  equisite  finish 
of  most  of  the  tracks  on  those  rocks.'  " 


—69— 
'Plate  I.— Barnesville  Track  Eocks  No.  1— 1-20th  of  Nature. 


—70— 


'Plate  II.— Enlarged  Figures  of  No.  1— 1-7th  of  Nature. 


"Block  No.  1.— 1-20th  of  Nature. 


—71— 

"In  all  cases,  whether  single  or  in  groups,  the  relative 
dimensions  of  the  figures  are  preserved.  The  surface  of  this 
block  is  eight  by  eleven  feet.  An  error  has  crept  into  the 
engraving  of  this  group,  in  regard  to  the  east  and  west 
sides,  which  should  be  reversed  :  for  east  read  west,  and  for 
west,  east. 

"a1  — human  foot,  greatest  length  15  inches. 

"a2  — human  foot,  greatest  length  10  inches. 

"a6  — human  foot,  greatest  length  3J  inches. 

ub — Nos.  1  and  2,  awparently  the  fore  foot  of  a  bear,  5£  to  9  inches  long. 

uc — hind  foot  of  a  wolf  or  dog,  breadth  across  the  toes  3|  inches. 

"c1  — hind  foot  of  a  wolf  or  dog,  breadth  across  the  toes  2h  inches. 

ud — probably  the  hind  foot  of  a  bear,  length  5}  inches. 

"e — Nos.  1  to  5,  buffalo  tracks,  length  2  to  5  inches. 

fjf— Nos.  1  to  13,  so  called  'bird  tracks,'  3J  to  5  inches  in  length. 

"g — Nos.  1  to  4,  snakes,  or  portions  of  them,  13  to  21  inches  in  length. 

"h — effigy  of  a  bird,  greatest  length  22  inches. 

ui— Nos.  1  to  9  resembles  the  spread  out  skin  of  an  animal,  3  to  8  inches 
greatest  diameter. 

uk — not  recognized  as  an  animal  form,  length  6  inches. 

ul — an  imperfect  figure. 

"n— probably  a  variation  of  i,  with  a  groove  that  may  have  been  part  of  the 
figure. 

"o — apparently  incomplete. 

"P — greatest  length  6  inches. 

"q — spirit  circle,  diameter  7J  inches. 

"x— Nos.  1  to  3,  outlines  of  the  human  face,  breadth  3£  to  6  inches. 

"There  is  a  rock  in  Georgia, described  by  the  antiquarian, 
C.  C.  Jones,  of  that  State,  on  which  are  a  number  of  circles 
like  'g,'  a  sign  used  by  the  Chippeways  to  represent  a 
spirit. 


—72- 


"Plate  III.— Barnesville  Track  Rock  No.  2 — 1-19  and 
1-7  of  Nature. 


'Block  No.  2,  7  feet  by  8,  Lying  20  Feet  South  of  No.  1. 


—73— 

'•a — Nob.  2,  6,  7,  and  8,  human  foot  9  inches  long. 

"a10 — human  foot  oh  inches  long. 

"c—  Xos.  1  and  10  to  16,  hind  foot  of  a  dog  or  wolf,  2J  to  4  inches  broad 
across  the  toes. 

"c— Xos.  2, 3,  4,  and  5,  five  toes,  greatest  breadth  4  to  5}  inches  across  the  toes 
(the  animal  not  recognized.) 

"d — hind  foot  of  a  bear. 

"el  — buffalo  track,  3  inches  long. 

"e2  — buffalo  track  1^  inches  long,  a  pair. 

'^■—so-called  "bird  tracks,"  3£  to  5  inches  long. 

"g — snake,  21  inches  long;  g^  — part  of  same. 

"t — groove,  5  inches  long. 

"We  have  here  as  good  representations  as  it  is  possible  to 
procure  of  an  entire  rock  inscription.  The  copy  of  the 
Independence  stone  embraces  only  a  fragment  of  the  original, 
not  exceeding  one-fourth  of  the  surface  once  covered  with 
sculptured  effigies.  If  the  figures  had  a  general  relation  to 
each  other,  it  could  not  be  determined  by  an  inspection  of 
only  a  portion  of  them. 

"The  inscriptions  near  Newark,  in  Licking  County,  Ohio, 
originally  covered  a  vertical  face  of  conglomerate  rock,  fifty 
or  sixty  feet  in  length,  by  six  and  eight  feet  in  height.  This 
rock  is  soft,  and,  therefore,  the  figures  are  easily  erased.  As 
the  place  was  partially  sheltered  from  the  weather  by  over- 
hangs, the  injury  done  to  them  by  exposure  was  not  much  ; 
but  from  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  country,  about  the 
year  1800,  it  became  a  place  where  white  men  sought  to  im- 
mortalize themselves  by  cutting  their  names  across  the  old 
inscriptions.  When  Dr.  Salisbury,  in  1864,  undertook  to 
rescue  what  remained  of  them,  it  was  only  possible  to  trace 
the  ancient  figures  over  a  space  about  seven  feet  by  thirteen, 
and  here  many  of  them  were  restored  with  difficulty,  by 
great  patience  and  labor.  His  copy  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society,  and  is  in  the  course  of 
publication.  It  is,  therefore,  like  the  Independence  stone, 
only  a  fragment. 


—74— 

"On  the  rock-faces  and  detached  sandstone  blocks  of  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio  River,  there  are  numerous  groups  of 
intaglios,  but  in  them  the  style  is  quite  different  from  those 
to  which  I  have  referred,  and  which  are  located  in  the 
interior.  Those  on  the  Ohio  River  resemble  the  symbolical 
records  of  the  North  American  Indians,  such  as  the  Kelley 
Island  stone,  described  in  Schoolcraft  by  Captain  Eastman, 
the  Dighton  Rock,  the  Big  Indian  Rock  of  the  Susquehanna, 
and  the  'God  Rock'  of  the  Alleghany  River.  In  those  the 
supposed  bird  track  is  generally  wanting.  The  large  sculp- 
tured rock,  near  "Wellsville,  which  is  only  visible  at  low 
water  of  the  Ohio,  has  among  the  figures  one  that  is  prom- 
inent on  the  Barnesville  stones.  This  is  the  forefoot  of  the 
bear,  with  the  outside  toe  distorted  and  set  outward  at  right 
angles. 


<  0 


Plate  IV. — Independence  Slab,  4 \  by  6  Feet,  now  in  the  West 
Wall  of  the  Church — 1-14th   of  Nature. 


"AAA — Irregular  patches  slightly  worked  with  a  pick. 


—76— 

"THE     INDEPENDENCE    STONE. 

"Great  care  has  been  taken  to  obtain  a  correct  sketch  of 
what  remains  of  this  inscription.  A  very  rude  drawing  of 
it  was  published  in  Schoolcraft's  great  work  upon  the  Indian 
tribes,  in  1854.  He  probably  regarded  it  as  the  work  of  the 
red  man.  In  1869,  Dr.  J.  H.  Salisbury,  who  has  long  been 
engaged  in  the  investigation  of  rock  inscriptions  at  the 
West,  in  company  with  Dr.  Lewis,  of  the  Asylum  at  New- 
burgh,  made  a  copy,  by  means  of  full  and  exact  measure- 
ments. 

"As  no  sketch  is  of  equal  authenticity  with  a  photograph, 
Mr.  Thos.  T.  Sweeney,  an  artist  at  Cleveland,  went  to 
Independence,  and  took  a  copy  with  his  instrument.  The 
light  on  that  day  was  not  favorable,  but  the  outlines  of  all 
the  artificial  work  upon  the  stone  were  thus  secured  with 
exactness.  For  the  purposes  of  the  engraver,  the  figures 
were  filled  in  by  Dr.  Salisbury  from  his  sketch.  Without 
expressing  an  opinion  as  to  the  authors  ol  these  inscriptions, 
I  present,  in  connection  with  the  engraving,  the  details 
furnished  by  Dr.  Salisbury: 

"'Mr.  W.  F.  Bushnell,  who  resides  at  Independence,  and  M.  B.  Wood,  of 
Cleveland,  state  that  these  markings  were  discovered  about  1853,  while  strip- 
ping the  earth  from  the  surface  of  a  quarry  on  the  north  brow  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  village  of  Independence  stands.  Here  the  rocks  projected  in  the 
form  of  a  perpendicular  cliff,  from  twenty  to  forty  feet  in  height.  On  the  top 
of  this  cliff,  aud  near  its  edge,  the  markings  were  discovered.  The  soil  over 
the  markings  was  from  five  to  eight  inches  in  depth,  and  was  black,  having 
been  formed  from  decaying  vegetation.  A  tree  was  growing  directly  over  the 
markings,  that  was  one  foot  or  more  in  diameter.  Within  a  few  feet  of  the 
spot  there  was  an  oak  tree  over  four  feet  in  diameter.  This  tree,  some  years 
previous  to  the  discovery  of  the  sculptured  rock,  had  fallen  nearly  across  the 
markings,  and,  in  1853,  was  much  decayed.  Besides  the  markings  represented 
in  the  engraving,  there  were  others  adjacent,  belonging  to  the  same  group, 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  the  quarrymen  before  Messrs.  Bushnell  and 
Wood  were  aware  of  it.  Among  the  markings  destroyed,  were  the  outline 
figures  of  a  man  and  woman,  very  well  executed.  There  were  also  the  repre- 
sentations of  a  wolf's  foot,  and  figures  of  the  feet  of  other  animals. 

"'At  the  time  of  the  discovery  the  stone  church  at  Independence  was  being 
built,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Deacon  Bushnell  and  others,  all  the  markings 
not  previously  destroyed  were  carefully  cut  out,  and  the  block  placed  in   the 


—77— 

rear  wall  of  the  church,  about  eight  feet  above  the  ground.  It  was  prudently 
placed  at  this  height  to  prevent  its  being  defaced,  for  they  are  not  very 
distinct. 

"  'In  company  with  Dr.  Lewis,  Superintendent  of  the  Northern  Ohio 
Lunatic  Asylum,  I  visited  the  locality  on  the  5th  day  of  June,  1869,  and  made 
careful  drawings  of  all  the  markings  visible  on  the  block  in  the  rear  wall  of 
the  church.  These,  with  accurate  measurements,  are  represented  here,  made 
more  perfect  by  the  use  of  Mr.  Sweeney's  photography. 

'"The  rock  here  described  only  contains  a  portion  of  the  inscription;  the 
balance  was  destroyed  in  quarrying.  The  markings  on  the  portion  of  the 
rock  preserved  consist  of  the  human  foot,  clothed  with  something  like  a 
moccasin  or  stocking;  of  the  naked  foot;  of  the  open  hand;  of  round  mark- 
ings, one  in  front  of  the  great  toe  of  each  representation  of  the  clothed  foot; 
the  figure  of  a  serpent;  and  peculiar  character  w,  which  might  be  taken  for 
rude  representation  of  a  crab  or  crawfish,  but  which  bears  a  closer  resemblance 
to  an  old-fashioned  spear  head,  used  in  capturing  fish. 

"  'The  clothed  feet  are  of  five  different  sizes.  There  are  eighteen  impressions 
of  this  kind,  arranged  in  nine  pairs.  Of  the  largest  size  there  are  five  pairs — 
a,  c,  g,  /,  m;  of  the  next  size  smaller  there  is  only  one  pair — o;  of  the  next 
smaller  size  one  pair — g;  of  the  next  smaller  size  one  pair — e;  of  the 
next  smaller  size  one  pair.  Of  the  naked  foot  there  is  only  a 
single  figure,  which  is  rudely  carved,  and  which  is  much  longer 
than  the  clothed  representations.  There  are  two  figures  of  the  open  hand — 
one  with  a  large  palm  and  short  fingers,  the  other  smaller,  with  fingers  long 
and  slender. 

"  'The  sculptures  have  all  been  made  with  a  sharp-pointed  instrument,  by 
the  process  of  pecking,  and  sunk  in  throughout  instead  of  being  mere  outlines. 
The  cuttings  are  from  one-eighth  to  half  an  inch  deep.  The  two  hands  are 
sculptured  the  deepest.  In  the  illustrations  I  have  endeavored  to  give  an  idea 
of  the  markings  left  by  the  tool  used,  though  these  are  less  evident  than  the 
representations. 

"  'The  length  of  the  largest  feet  in  figures  a,  c,  g,  I,  m,  from  the  extremity  of 
the  great  toe  to  the  heel,  is  six  and  three-fourths  inches,  and  the  width,  at  the 
widest  place,  two  and  three-fourths  inches.  The  length  of  the  next  in  size,  o> 
is  five  inches,  and  the  width  two  and  one-eighth  inches;  and  of  g,  five  inches 
by  two  inches.  Length  of  next  smaller  size,  e,  three  and  a  half  inches,  and 
width  one  and  three-fourths  inches,  and  three  and  three-fourths  inches  by 
one  and  a  half  inches.  The  length  of  the  naked  foot,  s,  is  nine  inches,  and 
greatest  width,  four  and  three-fourths  inches.  ,  The  great  toe  is  one  inch  long, 
the  second  toe  one  and  one-fourth  inches  long,  the  third  toe  one  and  a  half 
inches  long,  the  fourth  toe  one  and  a  fourth  inches  long,  and  the  little  toe  one 
inch  long. 

"  'In  the  large  hand,  t,  the  palm  is  five  and  a  half  inches  long  and  three  and 
a  half  inches  wide.  The  length  of  the  thumb  is  one  and  a  half  inches,  the 
index  finger  one  and  three-fourths   inches,  the   middle  finger  two   inches,  the 


—78- 

ring  finger  one  and  three-fourths  inches,  and  the  little  finger  one  and  a  half 
inches.  In  the  other  hand,  u,  the  palm  is  three  and  a  half  inches  long  and 
two  and  a  half  inches  wide.  The  length  of  the  thumb  is  two  and  one-fourth 
inches,  the  index  finger  two  and  a  half  inches,  the  middle  finger  two  and  three- 
fourths  inches,  the  ring  finger  two  and  a  fourth  inches,  and  the  little  finger 
two  inches. 

"  'The  diameter  of  the  circular  markings,  invariably  found  in  front  of  the 
clothed  feet,  are  as  follows:  b,  one  and  one-eighth  inches;  d,  one  and  three- 
fourths  inches;  /,  three-fourths  inch;  h,  one  inch;  k,  half  inch;  n,  one  and  a 
half  inches;  p,  one  and  one-fourth  inches;  q,  one  inch. 

"  'The  diameter  of  the  serpent's  head  is  two  and  three-fourths  inches;  length 
of  body,  ninety-four  inches,  making  the  entire  length  of  the  figure  about 
eight  feet. 

u  'In  the  sculptured  figure,  w,  the  measurements  are  omitted. 

"  'It  is  evident  this  slab  does  not  contain  the  entire  description.  The  tracks, 
I,  are  only  partially  present,  while  it  is  very  probable  that  more  tracks 
occurred  in  the  direction  a,  b,  arranged  in  a  line  as  those  are  from  c  to  I,  where 
there  are  ten  tracks  and  eight  round  characters,  and  which  are  probably  not 
all  that  were  originally  in  this  line  previous  to  the  stones  being  quarried. 
The  round  markings  in  front  of  the  clothed  tracks  may  have  been  intended  to 
represent  the  track  of  dogs  or  wolves,  but  at  present  they  are  so  smoothed  by 
time  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  out  anything  but  simple  irregular  circular 
depressions. 

"  'The  rock  on  which  the  inscription  occurs  is  the  grindstone  grits  of  the 
Ohio  Reports,  an  extensive  stratum  in  Northern  Ohio,  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  below  the  conglomerate.  It  is  almost  pure  silex,  and  possesses  the 
property  of  resisting  atmospheric  changes  to  a  remarkable  degree.  Boulders 
and  projecting  portions  of  the  formation,  from  which  this  block  was  obtained* 
that  have  been  exposed  to  the  weather  for  ages,  preserve  perfectly  their  sharp, 
angular  projections.  As  a  building  stone  it  is  superior  on  account  of  its 
extreme  durability.  This  durability  of  the  rock,  and  the  fact  that  these 
markings  were  covered  with  earth,  explains  why  they  have  been  so  finely 
preserved. 

"  'The  markings  a,  c,  e,  g,  /,  m,  o,  and  q,  have  been  supposed  by  some  to 
represent  the  tracks  of  the  buffalo.  After  carefully  measuring  them,  however, 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  designed  to  represent  tracks  of 
the  clothed  human  foot,  and  as  such  have  described  them. 

''  'The  so-called  bird  tracks,  which  are  few  and  faint  on  this  slab,  are  num- 
erous and  bold  on  most  of  the  rock  inscriptions  of  Ohio.' " 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  any  of  these  sculptures 
can  be  properly  called  picture  writings.  There  is  no  regular 
order  of  arrangement ;  no  systematic  grouping  of  characters 
pointing  to  a  serial  connection  between  them.     In  a  specimen 


—79— 

of  modern  Indian  picture-writing,  purporting  to  be  the  life 
of  a  Chippeway,  and  deposited  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Natural  Science  Association,  of  Detroit,  the  characters  are 
arranged  in  regular  order,  there  being  two  series  on  each 
side  of  a  wooden  tablet,  the  feet  of  the  figures  of  men  and 
animals  directed  toward  the  edge  of  the  tablet,  clearly 
indicating  a  methodical  arrangement,  and  that  the  record  is 
to  be  read  from  one  end  to  the  other,  along  one  series  of 
characters,  when  the  other  edge  of  the  tablet  was  to  be 
turned  upward  and  the  reading  continued  to  the  place  of 
beginning.  It  is  not  apparent  whether  the  reading  should 
be  from  right  to  left  or  the  reverse,  nor  where  the  reading 
should  begin.  It  is  certainly  a  much  more  perfect  specimen 
of  picture-writing  than  any  of  the  rock  inscriptions  in  Ohio, 
and  all  of  the  latter  are  probably  the  work  of  modern 
Indians. 

EARTH  WORKS. 
The  ancient  earth  works  of  Ohio,  in  their  variety,  magni- 
tude and  extent,  excel  those  of  all  the  other  States.  Single 
mounds  of  greater  size  are  found  elsewhere,  but  no  other 
State  has  such  a  variety  of  these  works,  or  such  numbers  of 
them  as  Ohio.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  builders  of 
these  works  had  no  beasts  of  burden,  or  draught,  no  metal 
tools  of  a  size  or  character  to  be  of  any  use  in  their  con- 
struction ;  that  all  the  material  must  have  been  laboriously 
carried  to  its  place  in  baskets,  it  will  be  obvious  that  the  real 
labor  expended  upon  some  of  them  was  not  much,  if  any, 
less  than  that  expended  upon  the  largest  pyramid  of  Egypt. 
Such  works  could  be  constructed  only  by  a  people  who  had 
a  compact,  civil  organization,  with  a  central  authority  which 
could  control  the  labor  of  the  masses,  and  with  dominant 
civil  or  religious  ideas  which  would  induce  the  masses  to 
submit  to  long-continued  labor.  The  more  extensive  works 
peculiar  to  the  State,  indicate  large,  fixed  commuities,  which 
involves  the  practice  of  agriculture  and  habits  of  life  very 
different  from  that  of  the  hunting  tribes,  roaming  over  the 
State,  upon  its  first  occupancy  by  the  whites. 


—80— 

The  most  of  these  works  are  confined  to  the  valleys  of 
the  streams  where  there  is  land  specially  adapted  to  the 
cultivation  of  maize  or  Indian  corn,  which  was  the  basis  of 
pre-Columbian  American  agriculture.  They  are  much  more 
abundant  in  the  northern  and  southern  than  in  the  central 
parts  of  the  State,  a  fact  which  might  be  easily  explained 
from  the  small  extent  of  the  alluvial  valley,  on  the  table 
and.  Still  there  is  a  marked  difference  in  the  character  of 
those  in  the  northern  and  southern  regions.  The  former 
have  more  the  appearance  of  defense  works,  both  in  their 
location  and  mode  of  construction.  They  ordinarily  occupy 
•elevated  spurs,  projecting  from  the  table  land  into  the 
valleys,  overlooking  extensive  alluvial  plains — often  where 
erosion  has  left  these  spurs  with  a  narrow  connection  with 
the  table  land,  and  a  wider  expanse  of  surface  on  the  part 
projecting  into  the  valley.  In  such  cases  the  works  consist 
of  one,  two,  or  three  ditches  and  embankments  across  the 
neck,  plainly  intended  to  protect  the  spur  against  aggression 
from  the  table  land.  The  enclosed  surface  often  shows  evi- 
dence of  having  been  leveled  off,  the  material  removed  so 
deposited  as  to  increase  the  angle  of  the  slope  rising  from 
the  valley  ;  and  in  some  cases  the  location  of  an  old  foot- 
path leading  from  the  summit  into  the  valley  can  be  clearly 
traced.  The  enclosed  surface  is  generally  filled  with  pit- 
holes  and  shows  evidence  of  long  occupancy.  The  valley  of 
the  Cuyahoga  is  lined  with  such  works,  which  have  been 
figured  and  described  by  Col.  Whittlesey.  Typical  forms  of 
these  works  are  to  be  seen  at  the  junction  of  Furnace  Run 
with  the  Cuyahoga,  in  Summit  County,  and  at  the  junction 
of  Payne's  Creek  with  Grand  River,  in  Lake  County. 
These  protecting  walls  and  ditches  take  different  shapes, 
determined  by  the  form  of  the  surface  to  be  protected.  Two 
in  Northampton  township  form  complete  enclosures  with 
the  exception  of  a  single  gateway  in  each  opening  toward 
the  alluvial  bottom  land  to  which  doubtless  a  foot-path 
originally  led.  Were  these  purely  military  works,  or  such 
defences  as  pertained  to  the  ordinary  life  of  their  builders? 


—81  — 

These  old  agriculturists  had  three  enemies  against  whom 
they  were  compelled  to  contend  :  the  extension  of  the 
forests,  the  intrusions  of  wild  beasts,  and  the  aggressions  of 
more  war-like  hunting  tribes.  The  extension  of  the  forests 
is  mentioned  because  it  may  have  been  one  of  the 
most  efficient  causes  in  the  final  expulsion  of  these  people. 
Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  find  causes  for  the  exist- 
ence of  the  treeless  prairies  of  the  West.  A  more  natural 
inquiry  would  be,  how  came  the  other  sections  to  be  covered 
with  forests  ?  An  herbacious  vegetation  doubtless  preceded 
the  forests  and  has  been  slowly  restricted  by  the  growth  of 
the  latter.  In  the  Southern  States  extensive  regions  which 
sustained  only  an  herbacious  vegetation  when  first  explored 
by  the  whites,  are  now  covered  with  trees.  Early  agriculture 
attained  its  highest  perfection  in  regions  too  arid  for  forest 
growth,  where  facilities  were  afforded  for  the  artificial 
irrigation  of  the  cultivated  land,  and  was  practically  restricted 
to  treeless  regions  until  better  cutting  tools  than  our  mound 
builders  possessed  enabled  the  argriculturists  to  successfully 
contend  with  forest  growth. 

These  alluvial  plains,  not  long  ago  covered  with  water 
would  be  the  last  to  be  encroached  upon  by  the  forest,  and 
were  very  probably  treeless  when  first  subjected  to  tillage. 
Land  could  not  be  cleared  of  forests,  and  its  intrusion  could 
with  difficulty  be  resisted  with  such  tools  as  have  been 
desmbed  above.  Crowded  out  by  any  causes  from  these 
regions,  they  could  not  transfer  their  agricultural  operations 
to  the  treeless  plains  of  the  West,  where  the  rank  growth  of 
grass  would  present  so  formidable  obstacles  and  where 
countless  herds  of  buffalo  roamed.  Certainly  they  sought 
these  alluvial  valleys,  poorly  adapted  to  the  growth  of  grass, 
admirably  adapted  to  the  growth  of  Indian  corn  ;  the  fortified 
adjacent  bluffs,  so  selected  as  to  command  a  view  of  their 
cultivated  fields  below,  from  whence  they  could  observe  the 
intrusion  of  man  or  beast  and  make  provision  against  the 
attacks  of  enemies  from  the  table  lands.  The  sizejof  these 
enclosures  seems  to  be  related  to  the  size  of  the  arable  land 


—82- 


in  the  adjacent  valley,  and  hence  to  the  size  of  the  village 
communities  that  could  be  supported  from  them.  It  seems 
a  reasonable  inference  that  these  enclosures  were  strong- 
holds, for  protection  and  observation,  and  designed  to  meet 
the  normal  wants  of  small  communities  of  argriculturists, 
and  that  they  were  not  erected  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a 
campaign.  The  great  number  of  them,  and  the  small  size 
of  each,  scattered  along  the  bluffs  of  a  single  stream,  like 
the  Cuyahoga,  would  tend  to  confirm  this  conclusion. 


FORT  HILL,  NEAEBEREA,  CUYAHOGA  CO. 


The  wood-cut  here  intro- 
duced indicates  the  general 
character  of  these  fortified 
spurs. 

In  the  valley,  and  at  a 
distance  from  these  pro- 
tected enclosures,  are  some- 
times single  mounds,  which 
seem  not  to  have  been 
burial  mounds  raised  to 
such  an  elevation  merely 
as  would  give  an  extended 
view  above  the  top  of  the 

f  A—  Enclosed  space;  a.  a,  a.— Embank-      growing  COril. 
ments  and  ditches.  Scale,200  f  t.to  the  inch. 

Such  an  outlying  mound  may  be  seen  in  the  Pymatuning 
Valley,  in  Wayne,  Ashtabula  County.  In  this  whole  north- 
ern region  true  burial  mounds  are  rare,  and  those  that  have 
been  observed  are  of  small  size. 

In  Copley,  Summit  County,  is  a  fortified  enclosure  pre- 
cisely similar  to  those  known  to  be  made  by  the  more 
modern  Indians,  and  which  may  probably  be  referred  to 
them.  A  large  circular  elevation  rises  like  an  island  in  the 
center  of  a  swamp,  which,  before  the  adjacent  land  was 
cleared,  would  be  almost  impassable.  This  was  enclosed  by 
a  ditch  and  and  wall,  carried  entirely  around  the  elevation, 
making   a   secret   and  pretty  secure   retreat.     It    is   known 


—83— 

that  the  New  England  Indians  secreted  in  such  places  their 
wives  and  children  when  at  war  with  the  whites,  and  when 
discomfited  in  battle,  often  retreated  to  them,  sometimes 
eluding  pursuit,  sometimes  defending  themselves  there  to 
the  last  extremity.  It  is  not  certain  that  they  enclosed  them 
with  embankments  of  earth. 


Island  Fort-Lot  14,  Copley,  Summit        Qa   gome  of  the   hi~hest 

County,  O.,  Surveyed  August  17, 1877.     ,  .-,,       X.T~>.   ,  ,       ,        ,  Sr 

hills  of  liichland  and  Knox 

Counties,  are  look-out  or 
signal  mounds,  similar  to 
those  which  may  be  traced 
from  these  places  south  to 
trie  Ohio  River.  In  some 
of  these  places  small 
mounds  have  been  built, 
with  much  labor,  of  stones 
brought  from  the  valleys 
below,  and  nearly  all  show 
the  results  of  surface  fires. 
Many  of  these,  and  per- 
haps all  of  them,  may  be 
the  work  of  modern  In- 
dians, as  it  is  well  Known 
that  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  telegraphing  to  scattered  members  of  their  tribes 
or  allies  by  the  smoke  of  fires  kindled  at  such  places. 

Licking  County  seems  to  be  the  center  of  population  of 
the  old  mound  builders  of  the  State,  and  in  it  are  some  of 
the  most  remarkable  earth-works  to  be  found  in  the  United 
States.  Mounds,  some  of  them  of  large  size,  some  of  earth 
and  some  of  stone,  are  scattered  over  the  county,  but  so 
remarkable  are  the  works  near  Newark,  now  in  part  occupied 
by  the  county  agricultural  society,  that  comparatively  little 
attention  has  been  given  to  the  others.  This  collection  of 
mounds,  embankments,  enclosures,  etc.,  covers  over  one 
thousand   acres,  and  by  its  extent  and  character  indicates 


Long  diameter,  244  feet;  short  diame- 
ter, 196  feet.  Scale,  200  feet  to  the  inch ; 
d,  d. — Eemains  of  a  beaver  dam. 


—84— 

that  here  was  the  metropolis  of  the  mound  builders.  The 
general  character  of  the  most  important  of  these  works  will 
be  better  understood  by  the  cut  given  on  another  page. 

Mr.  Smucker  has  known  the  works  for  more  than  fifty-fi ve 
years,  and  hunted  over  them  when  covered  with  the  primeval 
forests.  He  reports  that  they  were  covered  with  a  mixed 
growth  of  walnut,  sugar-maple,  beech,  oak,  and  wild  cherry 
trees,  some  ot  which,  when  cut  down,  showed  that  they 
were  over  five  hundred  years  old,  which  would  indicate  not 
less  than  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  years  since 
the  commencement  of  the  intrusion  of  the  forests.  It  is 
believed  that  General  Harrison  first  called  attention  to  the 
fact,  in  regard  to  similar  works,  that  a  mixed  forest  indicated 
a  forest  growth  of  at  least  two  or  three  generations  of  trees. 
A  new  natural  forest  is  almost  if  not  quite  uniformly  com- 
posed of  one  variety  only,  and  the  change  to  a  variety  of 
species  is  made  very  slowly.  But  was  this  ground  ever 
occupied  by  forests  until  the  abandonment  of  these  works? 
Their  erection  with  mound  builders'  tools,  if  it  involved  the 
clearing  of  a  forest  as  a  preliminary  work,  is  so  nearly 
impossible  that  we  can  not  imagine  it  would  be  ever  under- 
taken. It  involved  not  only  the  clearing  of  these  lands 
of  the  forest,  but  also  the  neighboring  lands  which  were  to 
be  subjected  to  tillage.  It  is  with  the  utmost  difficulty,  in 
moist  and  tropical  climates,  that  men  armed  with  the  best 
of  steel  tools  make  a  successful  battle  with  the  forests.  It  is 
much  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  these  works  were 
originally  located  in  a  treeless  region,  and  the  works 
evidently  of  the  same  age  scattered  over  the  county  indicate 
that  this  treeless  region  was  of  large  extent,  covering  prob- 
ably most  of  the  alluvial  valley.  The  inference  would  follow 
that  the  abandonment  of  the  region  marked  the  time  when 
the  slow  intrusion  of  the  forests  reduced  the  amount  of 
tillable  land  below  the  necessities  of  the  community  ;  the 
time  since  their  abandonment  marks  the  whole  period  of 
forest  growth  on  the  alluvial  bottoms.  If  the  question  is 
asked,  how  long  is  this  period  ?  the  only  answer  that  can  be 


-85— 


—86— 

given  is  that  in  the  term  as  applied  to  human  history,  the 
time  was  long ;  how  long,  no  one  can  tell. 

The  most  prominent  features  of  these  works  consist  of  an 
octagonal  enclosure  embracing  50  acres ;  a  square  enclosure 
of  20  acres  ;  a  circle  of  30  acres,  and  a  smaller  circle  of  20 
acres.  A  number  of  covert  ways  extended  from  these 
enclosures,  and  various  mounds,  circles  and  crescentic  em- 
bankments are  connected  with  them.  These  walls  still  rise 
in  places  to  the  height  of  30  feet.  At  the  center  of  the 
largest  circular  enclosure  is  a  low  mound  wiiich  Mr.  Smucker 
regards  as  intended  to  represent  an  eagle,  with  extended 
wings,  measuring  from  tip  to  tip  ot  the  wings  240  feet,  and 
from  head  to  tail  210  feet.  The  largest  circular  enclosure  is 
reported  by  Mr.  Smucker  to  have  an  opening  about  100  feet 
wide,  and  the  door- ways  in  all  are  much  too  wide  to  admit  of 
the  idea  that  any  of  them  are  intended  for  forts.  But  for 
what  were  they  designed  ?  A  cut  of  the  wrorks  at  Marietta 
and  of  those  at  Circleville  are  given  for  comparison,  and  to 
bring  out  the  typical   character  of  this  class  of  earthworks. 

The  typical  characteristics  are  circular  and  square,  or 
rectilinear  enclosures,  the  circle  with  one  broad  gateway ; 
the  .square  with  many  gateways,  the  two  either  closely  con- 
nected, as  in  the  Circleville  works,  or  by  long  covert  ways,  as 
in  the  Newark  works.  The  absence  of  the  circular  enclosure, 
as  at  Marietta,indicates  that  it  is  an  adjunct  to  the  other  form 
of  enclosure,  and  may  be  dispensed  with.  The  presence  of 
something  like  an  altar  or  symbolic  mound  in  the  centre  of 
the  circle  is  also  significant.  The  large  number  of  passage 
ways  into  the  rectilinear  enclosures  show  that  the  dominant 
idea  in  making  these  embankments  was  not  to  secure  a 
protected  enclosure.  Yet  the  protecting  of  most  of  these 
gateways,  or  breaks  in  the  wall,  by  mounds,  seems  to  indicate 
a  use  of  the  whole  for  protecting  the  interior.  The  difference 
in  the  numbers  of  the  segments  of  the  rectilinear  walls 
should  also  be  noted.  In  the  Circleville  enclosure,  8  ;  in  the 
Newark,in  one  case,  8  ;  in  another,  6  ;  in  that  at  Marietta,  in 


■87— 


OHIO   R'VER 


j-  CIRCLEVILLE 


—88— 

one  case,16 ;  in  the  other,10.  Both  at  Newark  and  at  Marietta 
there  are  isolated  segments  of  jnst  such  embankments  form- 
ing no  part  of  an  enclosure,  but  which  could  be  easily 
imagined  to  be  the  beginning  of  an  enclosure. 

When  Vol.  IV.  of  "  Contributions  to  North  American 
Ethnology,"  by  Lewis  H.  Morgan,  was  published,  his  con- 
clusions, which  he  advanced,  however,  as  a  hypothesis,  as 
simply  a  possible  explanation  of  the  use  of  these  embank- 
ments, was  not  very  generally  accepted.  It  must  be  conceded, 
however,  that  he  undertook  the  only  line  of  investigation 
which  could  lead  to  correct  conclusions.  If  we  can  learn 
the  peculiarities  of  the  social  life  of  the  mound  builders,  we 
may  hope  to  learn  the  significance  of  their  remains.  The 
communal  life  of  so  many  of  the  American  races;  the  asso- 
ciation of  so  many  families  in  the  same  dwelling,or  connected 
series  of  dwellings,  which  Mr.  Morgan  shows  was  character- 
istic of  tribes  most  nearly  allied  in  other  characteristics  with 
the  mound  builders,  makes  it  a  reasonable  conclusion  that 
this  was  a  characteristic  of  their  social  life,  and  the  theory 
may  well  be  accepted,  as  a  provisional  one,  that  these 
segments  of  embankments  of  the  rectilinear  enclosures  were 
the  foundations  of  residences  for  closely  related  families  of 
large  tribal  villages.  The  enclosures  they  formed  may  have 
contained  the  store  houses  of  their  common  supplies, 
opening  also  into  the  circular  enclosure  which,  the  central 
altar-like  mound  contained  in  it,  suggests  was  appropriated 
to  religious  or  ceremonial  rites.  The  single  wide  opening 
into  these  circular  enclosures  was  evidently  adapted  to  the 
easy  ingress  and  egress  of  large  masses  of  men.  It  would 
follow  that  they  practiced  that  form  of  socialism, 
or  communism,  which  many  modern  reformers  are 
advocating,  which  is  characteristic  of  many  savage 
tribes  and  is  always  abandoned  before  any  great 
advance  is  made  in  civilization.  A  clearly  defined 
distinction,  universally  admitted,  between  the  tuum  and  the 
meum  is  essential  to  that  personal  effort  which  results  in 
civilization. 


—89— 

The  apparent  use  of  the  circle  for  the  sacred  enclosure 
confirms  the  above  conclusions,  as  the  circle  is  the  primitive 
form  of  building.  Our  children  build  circular  snow  forts, 
and  the  birds  and  beavers  build  in  a  circle,  because  this  is 
the  natural  form,  and  most  easily  made — a  form  always 
retained  by  savages  until  they  learn  to  build  with  timber, 
cut  into  regular  lengths,  or  with  stone.  The  circle,  long 
used  as  a  sacred  enclosure  and  consecrated  by  custom,  will 
be  retained  by  a  natural  conservatism  for  religious  uses  long 
after  rectilinear  buildings  are  constructed  for  common  uses. 

The  engineering  skill  required  for  the  construction  of  these 
works  is  generally  over-estimated.  To  the  eye  many  of  them 
appear  to  be  perfectly  symmetrical.  But  do  we  know  that 
they  are?  They  have  suffered  much  from  erosion,  and  it  is 
in  every  case  now  impossible  to  define  what  was  originally 
the  central  lines  of  the  embankments  or  the  exact  corners  of 
rectilinear  enclosures.  After  all  the  careful  measurements? 
we  do  not  know  the  exact  dimensions  of  the  base  of  the 
great  pyramid  of  Egypt,  or  whether  it  is  an  exact  square ; 
the  preponderance  of  evidence  being  that  it  is  not.  No  such 
care  has  been  given  to  the  measurements  of  any  ot  these 
enclosures,  and  it  is  not  proved  that  any  of  them  are  exact 
geometrical  figures.  A  measuring  rod  and  an  instrument 
for  laying  down  a  right  angle  would  suffice  for  the  planing 
of  all  of  them  without  a  knowledge  of  any  of  the  principles 
of  geometry. 

Associated  with  these  enclosures  are  many  forms  of 
mounds  which  are  also  found  isolated  in  various  parts  of 
the  State,  and  very  abundantly  in  Licking  County.  Those 
that  are  truncated  at  the  top  are  usually  regarded  as  temple 
mounds,  and  are  comparatively  rare  in  Ohio.  Explorations 
in  other  States  show  that  some  of  them  are  true  burial 
mounds.  The  most  noted  mound  of  this  character  in  the 
United  States  is  located  on  the  rich  alluvial  land  bordering 
the  lower  Mississippi,  and  near  the  mouth  of  Cahokia  Creek 
from  which  it  takes  its  name.     It  is  ninety  feet  high,  with  a 


—90— 

base  seven  hundred  feet  long,  and  five  hundred  feet  wide, 
the  level  surface  at  the  top  measuring  four  hundred  and  fifty 
by  two  hundred  feet,  and  its  solid  contents  estimated  at 
twenty  millions  of  cubic  feet. 

Burial  mounds  are  very  abundant  in  this  State,  of  a  conical 
form,  generally  with  a  circular,  but  sometimes  with  an  oval 
base,  usually  built  of  earth,  but  sometimes  of  stone.  No 
better  idea  of  the  general  character  of  these  mounds  can  be 
given  than  is  afforded  by  the  following  extracts  from  a 
paper  read  before  the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  February  21,  1866,  by  that  careful  observer,  O.  C. 
Marsh,  F.  G.  S.     He  says  : 

"  The  mound  selected  for  examination  was  about  two  and 
a  half  miles  south  of  Newark,  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Taylor,  and  was  known  in  the  neighborhood  as  the  <  Taylor 
Mound.'  It  was  conical  in  form,  about  ten  feet  in  height, 
and  eighty  in  diameter  at  the  base,  these  being  about  the 
average  dimensions  of  the  burial  mounds  in  that  vicinity. 
It  was  situated  on  the  summit  of  a  ridge,  in  the  midst  of  a 
stately  forest.  *  *  *  The  mound  stood  quite  alone,  nearly 
half  a  mile  from  its  nearest  neighbor,  and  about  three  miles 
from  the  large  earthworks  already  mentioned.     *     *     * 

"  An  excavation  about  eight  feet  in  diameter  was  first 
made  from  the  apex  of  the  mound,  and  after  the  surface  soil 
was  removed,  the  earth  was  found  to  be  remarkably  com- 
pact, probably  owing  to  its  having  been  firmly  trodden  down 
when  deposited.  This  earth  was  a  light  loam,  quite  different 
from  the  soil  of  the  ridge  itself,  and  its  peculiar  mottled 
appearance  indicated  that  it  had  been  brought  to  the  spot, 
in  small  quantities.  In  excavating  the  first  five  feet,  which 
was  a  slow  and  very  laborious  undertaking,  nothing  worthy 
of  notice  was  observed  except  some  traces  of  ashes,  and 
pieces  of  charcoal  and  flint,  scattered  about  at  various 
depths.  At  five  and  a  half  feet  below  the  surface,  where  the 
earth  became  less  difficult  to  remove,  a  broken  stone  pipe 
was  found   which  had   evidently  been  long  in  use.     It  was 


—91— 

made  of  a  very  soft  limestone,  containing  fragments  of 
small  fossil  shells,  apparently  cretaceous  species.  No  rock 
of  precisely  this  kind  is  known  to  exist  in  Ohio.  Pieces  of 
a  tube  of  the  same  material,  and  about  an  inch  in  diameter, 
were  found  near  the  pipe.  The  cavity  was  about  two-thirds 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  had  been  bored  with  great 
regularity.  Similar  tubes  have  occasionally  been  found  in 
mounds,  but  their  use  is  not  definitely  known. 

"About  seven  feet  from  the  top  of  the  mound  a  thin  white 
layer  was  observed,  which  extended  over  a  horizontal  surface 
of  several  square  yards.  Near  the  centre  of  this  space,  and 
directly  under  the  apex  of  the  mound,  a  string  of  more  than 
one  hundred  beads  of  native  copper  was  found,  and  with  it 
a  few  small  bones  of  a  child  about  three  years  of  age.  The 
beads  were  strung  on  a  twisted  cord  of  coarse  vegetable 
fibre,  apparently  the  inner  bark  ot  a  tree,  and  this  had  been 
preserved  by  the  salts  of  the  copper,  the  antiseptic  properties 
of  which  are  well  known.  The  position  of  the  beads 
showed  clearly  that  they  had  been  wound  two  or  three 
times  around  the  neck  of  the  child  ;  and  the  bones  them- 
selves (the  neural  arches  of  the  cervical  vertebra? ,  a  clavicle 
and  a  first  rib)  were  precisely  those  which  the  beads  would 
naturally  come  in  contact  with  when  decomposition  of  the 
body  ensued.  The  remains  evidently  owe  their  preservation 
to  this  fact,  as  they  are  all  colored  with  carbonate  of  copper, 
and  the  other  parts  of  the  skeleton  have  entirely  decayed. 
The  position  the  body  had  occupied,  however,  was  still 
clearly  indicated  by  the  darker  color  of  the  earth.  The 
beads  were  about  one-fourth  of  an  inch  long  and  one-third 
in  diameter,  and  no  little  skill  had  been  displayed  in  their 
construction.  They  were  evidently  made  without  the  aid  of 
fire,  by  hammering  the  metal  in  its  original  state;  but  the 
joints  were  so  neatly  fitted  that  in  most  cases  it  was  very 
difficult  to  detect  them.  On  th^  same  cord,  and  arranged 
at  regular  intervals,  were  five  shell  beads  of  the  same 
diameter,  but  about  twice  as  long  as  those  of  copper.     All 


—92— 

had  apparently  been  well  polished,  and  the  necklace  when 
worn  must  have  formed  a  tasteful  and  striking  ornament. 

"About  a  foot  below  the  remains  just  described,  and  a 
little  east  of  the  centre  of  the  mound,  were  two  adult  human 
skeletons,  lying  one  above  the  other,  and  remarkably  well 
preserved.  The  interment  had  evidently  been  performed 
with  great  care.  The  heads  were  toward  the  east,  slightly 
higher  than  the  feet,  and  the  arms  were  carefully  composed 
at  the  sides.  A  white  stratum,  similar  in  every  respect  to 
the  one  already  mentioned,was  here  very  distinct,and  extended 
horizontally  over  a  space  of  five  or  six  yards,  in  the  centre  of 
which  the  remains  had  been  laid.  The  earth  separated 
readily  through  this  stratum,  and  an  examination  of  the 
exposed  surfaces  showed  that  they  were  formed  from  two 
decayed  layers  of  bark,  on  one  of  which  the  body  had  been 
placed,  and  the  other  covered  over  them.  The  smooth  sides 
of  the  bark  had  thus  come  together  and  the  decomposition 
of  the  inner  layers  had  produced  the  peculiar  white  sub- 
stance, as  a  subsequent  microscopic  examination  clearly 
indicated.  (This  white  layer,  which  was  thought  by  Squire 
and  Davis  to  be  the  remains  of  matting,  is  a  characteristic 
feature  in  burial  mounds.  It  has  only  been  found  where  the 
interments  were  unquestionably  of  mound  builders.)  Directly 
above  these  skeletons  was  a  layer  of  reddish  earth,  apparently 
a  mixture  of  ashes  and  burned  clay,  which  covered  a  surface 
of  about  a  square  yard.  Near  the  middle  of  this  space  was 
a  small  pile  of  charred  human  bones,  the  remains  of  a 
skeleton,  which  had  been  burned  immediately  over  those 
just  described.  The  fire  had  evidently  been  continued  for 
some  time,  and  then  allowed  to  go  out ;  when  the  fragments 
of  bone  and  cinders  that  remained  were  scraped  together, 
and  covered  with  earth.  All  the  bones  were  in  small  pieces, 
and  most  of  them  distorted  by  heat ;  but  among  them  were 
found  the  lower  extremity  of  a  humerus  and  some  fragments 
of  a  fibula,  which  showed  them  to  be  human,  and  indicated 
an  adult  rather  below  the  medium  size.  The  two  skeletons 
found    beneath   these     remains   were   well   formed  and   of 


—93— 

opposite  sex.  The  ossification  of  the  bones  indicated  that 
the  female  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  and  the  male 
somewhat  older. 

"  It  is  not  impossible  that  these  were  husband  and  wife, 
the  latter  put  to  death  and  buried  above  the  remains  of  her 
consort ;  and  the  charred  bones  may  have  been  those  of  a 
human  sacrifice  slain  at  the  funeral  ceremonies.  Near  these 
skeletons  was  a  small  quantity  of  reddish  brown  powder, 
which  proved  on  examination  to  be  hematite.  It  was 
probably  used  as  a  paint. 

u  On  continuing  our  excavations  about  a  foot  lower,  and 
somewhat  more  to  the  eastward,  a  second  pile  of  charred 
human  bones  was  found,  resting  on  a  layer  of  ashes,  charcoal 
and  burned  clay.  But  one  or  two  fragments  of  these 
remains  could  be  identified  as  human,  and  these  also  indi- 
cated a  small-sized  adult.  The  incremation  had  apparently 
been  performed  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  previous 
instance.  Immediately  beneath  the  clay  deposit,  a  third 
white  layer  was  observed,  quite  similar  to  that  just  described. 
In  this  layer  was  a  male  skeleton,  not  in  as  good  preservation 
as  those  already  mentioned,  although  belonging  to  an 
individual  considerably  older.  In  this  case,  also,  the  head 
was  toward  the  east,  and  the  burial  had  been  carefully 
performed.  Near  this  skeleton  about  a  pint  of  white  chaff 
was  found  which  appeared  to  belong  to  some  of  the  native 
grasses.  The  form  was  still  quite  distinct,  although  nearly 
all  the  organic  substance  had  disappeared.  A  few  inches 
deeper,  near  the  surface  of  the  natural  earth,several  skeletons, 
of  various  ages,  were  met  with,  which  had  evidently  been 
buried  in  a  hurried  manner.  All  were  nearly  or  quite 
horizontal,  but  no  layer  of  bark  had  been  spread  for  their 
reception,  and  no  care  taken  in  regard  to  the  arrangement 
of  limbs.  These  skeletons  were  in  a  tolerable  state  of 
preservation,  some  parts  being  quite  perfect.  A  tibia  and 
fibula,  with  most  of  the  corresponding  bones  of  a  foot,  were 
found  quite  by  themselves,  and  well  preserved. 


—9-4— 

"  Our  excavations  had  now  reached  the  original  surface  of 
the  ridge,  on  which  the  mound  was  erected,  and  we  were 
about  to  discontinue  further  researches,  when  the  dark  color 
ot  the  earth  at  one  point  attracted  attention,  and  an  exam- 
ination soon  showed  that  a  cist  or  grave  had  first  been 
excavated  in  the  soil  before  the  mound  itself  was  commenced. 
This  grave  was  under  the  eastern  part  of  the  elevation, 
about  four  feet  from  the  center.  It  consisted  of  a  simple 
excavation  in  an  east  and  west  direction,  about  six  feet  long, 
three  wide,  and  nearly  two  deep.  In  this  grave  were  found 
parts  of  at  least  eight  skeletons,  which  had  evidently  been 
thrown  in  carelessly — most  of  them  soon  after  death,  but 
one  or  two  not  until  the  bones  had  become  detached  and 
weathered.  Some  of  the  bones  were  very  well  preserved, 
and  indicated  individuals  of  various  ages:  Two  infants, 
about  a  year  and  eighteen  months  old  respectively,  were  each 
represented  by  a  single  os  illium,  and  bones  of  several  other 
small  children  were  found.  One  skull,  apparently  that  of  a 
boy,  about  twelve  years  of  age,  was  recovered  in  fragments, 
and  this  was  the  best  preserved  of  any  obtained  in  the 
mound.  The  skeleton  of  an  aged  woman  of  small  stature 
was  found  resting  on  its  side.  It  was  bent  together  and 
lay  across  the  grave,  with  its  head  toward  the  north.  Some 
of  the  loose  human  bones,  exhumed  from  the  bottom  of  the 
grave,  were  evidently  imperfect  when  thrown  in.  Among 
these  was  part  of  a  large  femur,  which  had  been  gnawed  by 
some  carniverous  animal.  The  marks  of  the  teeth  were 
sharply  defined,  and  corresponded  to  those  made  by  a  dog 
or  wolf. 

"  Quite  a  number  of  implements  of  various  kinds  were 
found  with  the  human  remains  in  this  grave.  Near  its 
eastern  end,  where  the  detached  bones  had  been  buried,  were 
nine  lance  and  arrow-heads,  nearly  all  of  the  same  form,  and 
somewhat  rudely  made  of  flint  and  chert.  *  *  *  These 
weapons  are  of  peculiar  interest,  as  it  appears  they  are  the 
first  that  have  been  discovered  in  a  sepulchral  mound, 
although  many  such  have  been   carefully  examined.     They 


—95— 

show  that  the  custom — so  common  among  the  Indians  of 
this  country — of  burying  with  the  dead  their  implements  of 
war  or  the  chase,  obtained  occasionally,  at  least,  among  the 
mound  builders.  Not  far  from  these  weapons  six  small 
hand-axes  were  found,  one  of  which  was  made  of  hematite, 
and  the  rest  of  compact  greenstone  or  diorite,  the  material 
often  used  by  the  Indians  for  similar  articles.  Two  of  these 
corresponded  closely  in  form  with  the  stone  hand-axe  figured 
by  Squire  and  Davis,  as  the  only  one  then  known  from  the 
mounds.  With  these  axes  were  found  a  small  hatchet  of 
hematite,  a  flint  chisel,  and  a  peculiar  flint  instrument, 
apparently  used  for  scraping  wood. 

"  In  the  central  part  of  the  grave,  near  the  aged  female 
skeleton  already  alluded  to,  were  a  large  number  of  bone 
implements,  all  exceedingly  well  preserved.  Among  these 
were  five  needles  or  bodkins,  from  three  to  six  inches  in 
length,  neatly  made  from  the  metatarsal  bones  of  the  com- 
mon deer,  and  also  a  spatula  cut  from  an  ulna  and  probably 
used  for  moulding  pottery.  With  these  were  found  about  a 
dozen  peculiar  implements  formed  from  the  antlers  of  a  deer 
and  elk.  They  are  cylindrical  in  form,  from  three  to  eight 
inches  in  length,  and  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half  in 
diameter.  Most  of  these  had  both  ends  somewhat  rounded, 
and  perfectly  smooth,  as  if  they  had  either  been  long  in  use, 
or  carefully  polished.  It  is  possible  these  instruments  were 
used  for  smoothing  down  the  seams  of  skins  or  leather  ; 
they  would  at  least  be  well  adapted  to  such  a  purpose.  A 
whistle  made  from  a  tooth  of  a  young  black  bear,  and  several 
'spoons,'  cut  out  of  the  shells  of  river  mussels,  were  also 
obtained  from  near  the  same  spot. 

"A  vessel  of  coarse  pottery  was  found  near  the  western 
end  of  the  grave,  but  unfortunately  was  broken  in  removing 
it.  It  was  about  five  inches  in  its  greatest  diameter,  six  in 
height,  and  one-third  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  It  was  with- 
out ornament,  and  rudely  made  of  clay  containing  some  sand 
and  powdered  quartz.     It  was  filled  with  soft,  black  earth, 


—96— 

the  color  being  probably  due  to  some  animal  or  vegetable 
substance,  which  it  contained  when  deposited  in  the  grave. 
Fragments  of  a  vase  of  similar  material,  but  having  the  top 
ornamented,  were  found  in  another  part  of  the  mound- 
Neither  of  these  vessels  were  superior  in  any  respect  to  the 
pottery  manufactured  by  the  Indians. 

"Near  the  bottom  of  the  mound,  and  especially  in  the 
grave,  were  various  animal  bones,  most  of  them  in  an 
excellent  state  of  preservation.  Many  of  them  belonged  to 
the  common  deer,  and  nearly  all  the  hollow  bones  had  been 
skillfully  split  open  lengthwise— probably  for  the  purpose  of 
extracting  the  marrow  —  a  common  custom  among  rude 
nations.     *     *     * 

"  The  skeletons  found  in  this  mound  were  of  medium  size, 
somewhat  smaller  than  the  average  of  the  Indians  still  living 
in  this  country.  The  bones  were  certainly  not  stouter  than 
those  of  Indians  of  the  same  size,  although  this  has  been 
regarded  as  a  characteristic  of  the  remains  of  the  mound 
builders.  All  the  skulls  in  the  mound  were  broken — in  one 
instance,  apparently  before  burial — and  most  of  them  so 
much  decayed  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  preserve  them. 
Two,  however,  were  recovered  with  the  more  important 
parts  but  little  injured.  Both  were  of  small  size,  and  showed 
the  vertical  occiput,  prominent  vertex  and  large  interparietal 
diameter  so  characteristic  of  crania  belonging  to  the  Amer- 
ican race.  In  other  respects  there  was  nothing  of  special 
interest  in  their  conformation.  With  a  single  exception  all 
the  human  teeth  observed  were  perfectly  sound.  The  teeth 
of  all  the  adult  specimens  were  much  worn,  those  of  aged 
individuals  usually  to  a  remarkable  degree.  The  manner  in 
which  these  were  worn  away  is  peculiarly  interesting,  as  it 
indicates  that  the  mound  builders,  like  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
and  the  Danes  ot  the  stone  age,  did  not,  in  eating,  use  their 
incisive  teeth  for  cutting  as  modern  nations  do.  This  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  the  worn  incisors  are  all  truncated 
in  the  same  plane  with  the  coronal  surfaces  of  the  molars? 


—97— 

showing  that  the  upper  front  teeth  infringe  directly  on  the 
summits  of  those  below,  instead  of  lapping  over  them.  This 
peculiarity  may  be  seen  in  the  teeth  of  Egyptian  mummies, 
as  was  first  pointed  out  by  Cuvier.     *     *     * 

"  One  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the  mound  was 
the  large  number  of  skeletons  it  contained.  With  one  or 
two  exceptions  none  of  the  burial  mounds,  hitherto  exam, 
amined,  have  contained  more  than  a  single  skeleton  which 
unquestionably  belonged  to  the  mound  builders,  while  in  this 
instance  parts  of  at  least  seventeen  were  exhumed.  The 
number  of  small  children  represented  among  these  remains 
is  also  worthy  of  notice,  as  it  indicates,  for  this  particular 
case,  a  rate  ot  infant  mortality  (about  thirty-three  per  cent.) 
which  is  much  higher  than  some  have  supposed  ever  existed 
among  such  nations.  Another  point  of  special  interest  in 
this  mound  is  the  evidence  it  affords  that  the  regular  method 
of  burial  among  the  mound  builders  was  sometimes  omitted, 
and  the  remains  interred  in  a  hurried  and  careless  manner. 
This  was  the  case  with  eleven  of  the  skeletons  exhumed  in 
the  course  of  our  explorations,  a  remarkable  fact,  which 
appears  to  be  without  a  precedent  in  the  experience  of 
previous  investigators.  It  should  be  mentioned  in  this  con- 
nection that  nearly  all  these  remains  were  those  of  women 
and  children.  Their  hurried  and  careless  burial  might  seem 
to  indicate  a  want  of  respect  on  the  part  of  their  surviving 
friends,  were  there  not  ample  evidence  to  prove  that  rever- 
ence for  the  dead  was  a  prominent  characteristic  of  the 
mound  builders.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  in  this  instance 
some  unusual  cause,  such  as  pestilence,  or  war,  may  have 
made  a  hasty  interment  necessary.  The  various  implements 
and  remains  of  animals  found  with  these  skeletons  also 
deserve  notice,  as  they  far  exceed  in  number  and  variety  any 
hitherto  discovered  in  a  single  mound.  They  prove,  more- 
over, that  if  in  this  instance  the  rites  of  regular  burial  were 
denied  the  deposited,  their  supposed  future  wants  were 
amply  provided  for.  The  contents  of  one  part  of  the  cist, 
(which  is  itself  a  very  unusual  accompaniment  of  a   mound) 


—98— 

appears  to  indicate  that  the  remains  of  those  who  died  at  a 
distance  from  home,  were  collected  for  burial,  sometimes  long 
after  death.  The  interesting  discovery  of  weapons,  which 
were  found  with  these  detached  bones,  would  seem  to  imply, 
that  in  this  case  the  remains  and  weapons  of  a  hunter  or 
warrior  of  distinction,  recovered  after  long  exposure,  had 
been  buried  together. 

"  The  last  three  interments  in  this  mound  were  performed 
with  great  care,  as  already  stated,  and  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  usual  custom  of  the  mound  builders.  The  only 
point  of  particular  interest  in  regard  to  them  is  the  con- 
nection which  appears  to  exist  between  some  of  the  skeletons 
and  the  charred  human  bones  found  above  them.  Similar 
deposits  of  partially  burned  bones,  supposed  to  be  human, 
have  in  one  or  two  instances  been  observed  on  the  altars  of 
sacrificial  mounds,  and  occasionally  in  mounds  devoted  to 
sepulture,  but  their  connection  with  the  human  remains 
buried  in  the  latter,  if  indeed  any  existed,  appears  to  have 
been  overlooked.  Our  explorations,  which  were  very  care- 
fully and  systematically  conducted,  clearly  demonstrated 
that  in  these  instances  the  incremation  had  taken  place 
directly  over  the  tomb,  and  evidently  before  the  regular 
interment  was  completed ;  taking  these  facts  in  connection 
with  what  the  researches  of  other  investigators  have  made 
known  concerning  the  superstitious  rites  of  this  mysterious 
people,  it  seems  natural  to  conclude  that  in  each  of  these 
cases  a  human  victim  was  sacrificed  as  a  part  of  the  funeral 
ceremonies,  doubtless  as  a  special  tribute  of  respect  to  a 
person  of  distinction." 

These  copious  extracts  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Marsh,  of 
his  explorations  of  a  mound,  doubtless  erected  by  the  con- 
structors of  the  Newark  works,  is  given,  for  the  important 
information  it  affords  as  to  the  character  of  these  people,  and 
because  the  minute  and  pains-taking  care  exhibited  by  him 
in  the  exploration  may  well  be  taken  as  a  model  to  guide 
others  in  similar  explorations. 


—99— 

If  all  the  mounds  in  Ohio,  not  less  than  ten  thousand  in 
number,  were  as  carefully  explored,  it  would  throw  a  flood 
of  light  upon  the  character  and  social  condition  of  their 
builders. 

Mounds  of  observation  are  usually  smaller  than  the  last, 
generally  occupying  elevated  places  constituting  a  series  of 
signal  stations,  and  sometimes  located  on  alluuial  plains  in 
positions  commanding  an  extensive  view  up  and  down  the 
valley.  ISTatural  elevations  often  show,  by  the  accumulation 
of  charcoal  and  burned  stones,  that  they  were  used  as  signal 
stations;  but  whether  these  were  used  by  the  mound  builders 
or  by  the  more  modern  Indians,  can  not  be  determined,  but 
it  is  probable  they  were  used  by  both  for  this  purpose,  as 
were  also  the  burial  mounds  when  properly  located. 

A  large  number  of  still  smaller  mounds  are  called,  and 
probably  correctly,  altar  mounds.  They  are  usually  connected 
with  other  works  and  include  altar-like  constructions  of  stone 
or  clay  on  which  are  found  ashes,  charcoal,  calcined  bones,, 
some  of  which  have  been  identified  as  human,  and  specimens 
of  nearly  all  the  domestic  and  military  utensils  and  orna- 
ments of  the  mound  builders.  The  circular  enclosures,  as  in 
the  instances  above  given,  often  have  such  mounds  at  the 
center. 

Of  effigy  mounds  there  are  comparatively  few  in  the  State, 
but  among  these  the  Serpent  Mound,  of  Adams  County,  and 
the  so-called  Alligator  Mound,  of  Licking  County,  are  con- 
spicuous examples.  They  are  so  well  known,  and  have  been 
so  often  described,  that  a  repetition  of  the  descriptions  here 
is  unnecessary.  The  so-called  Alligator  Mound  is  a  very 
poor  imitation  of  an  alligator,  having  a  long  tail  curved  in  a 
manner  that  no  American  animal  could  imitate,  except  the 
opossum.  The  walls  of  Fort  Ancient,  in  Warren  County, 
have  been  described  as  two  huge  serpents,  but  the  early  plats 
of  it  show  nothing  to  justify  this  description. 


-100- 


MINING-  BY  THE  MOUtfD  BUILDERS. 

The  extensive  pre-historic  copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior, 
first  accurately  described    by  Col.  Whittlesey,  are   without 
doubt  the  work  of  the  mound  builders,  and  the  source  from 
which  they  obtained  the  greater  part  of  the  material  for  their 
copper  implements  and  ornaments.     Some  of  it  they  doubt- 
less obtained  from  the  drift.     These  mines  were  opened  by 
means  of  their  rude  tools,  with  great  labor,  wooden  shovels 
being  used  in  removing  waste  material.     The  rock  enclosing 
the  copper  was  subjected  to  the  action  of  fire,  and  broken 
up  by  stone  hammers   and  mauls.     Pieces  from  the  masses 
too  large  to  handle  were  laboriously  cut  or  pounded  off  with 
their  stone  axes,  and  pieces   too  large  to  be  handled  in  any 
other  manner  were  slowly  raised  to  the  surface  by  prying  up 
the   alternate   sides,   placing     small     timbers   beneath    and 
building  them  up  under  the  load  in  the  form  of  a  log  house- 
The  copper  thus  obtained  was  sometimes  worked  into  im- 
plements  in  the   neighborhood  of  the  mines,  as  important 
finds  in   that  region    show.      Several    copper    spears    and 
knives  have  been  found  together,  showing  that  they  were 
not  accidently  lost  but  buried  for  safe  keeping.     The  great 
abundance  of  mica  found  in  the  mounds  is  evidence  that  the 
builders  made  long  journeys  to  engage  in  mica  mining,  or 
maintained  a  system  of  exchanges  with  those  who  worked 
the  mines.     This  mineral  was  held  in  high  esteem,  and  was 
obtained  in  large  quantities.     Skeletons  have  been  exhumed 
entirely  covered  with  it. 

Masses  of  galena  have  been  found  in  Ohio  mounds  too 
large  to  have  been  obtained  in  the  State,  and  which  were 
doubtless  the  product  of  galena  mining.  Lead  is  so  easily 
obtained  from  galena  that  it  would  be  strange  if  the  mound 
builders  did  not  stumble  upon  the  mode  of  reducing  this  ore, 
but  the  metal  would  not  be  of  great  value  to  them.  In  the 
State  Collection  is  a  lead  ornament  found  in  the  ditch  within 
the  great  Circleville  enclosure ;  but  the  form  is  so  much  like 
that  of  the  lead  tomahawks  the  school-boys  made,  when  they 


— 101  — 

used  lead  to  rule  their  writing  paper,  that  it  is  reasonably 
inferred  that  it  is  of  modern  manufacture. 

Salt  was  evidently  manufactured  from  natural  brine  springs 
by  some  of  the  native  races  in  other  localities,  but  the 
evidence  is  wanting  of  its  manufacture  within  the  present 
limits  of  this  State. 

In  the  "  oil  territory "  of  Trumbull  County,  are  pre- 
historic wells  which  were  apparently  sunk  to  obtain  petroleum, 
but  whether  the  work  of  mound  builders  or  of  the  more 
recent  tribes,  is  not  apparent.  It  is  known  that  the  Indians 
highly  prized  the  petroleum  from  springs,  and  used  it  as  a 
medicine.  :  :  ,t  .  .  .    .  ,     , 

ALPHABETIC  WRITING  AND] "£K.GRAJV,J31> :,, ■; :■,  : 
TABLETS. 

On  the  present  site  of  Cincinnati,  at  its  first  discovery  by 
the  whites,  was  a  series  of  mounds,  earth-works  and 
embankments,  which,  according  to  the  account  given  by 
General  Harrison,  were  among  the  most  extensive  in  the 
State.  In  one  of  these  mounds,  explored  in  1841,  was  found, 
as  it  is  alleged,  the  "  Cincinnati  tablet,"  which  has  given  rise 
to  much  discussion, and  has  been  classed  among  the  "  frauds  " 
by  expert  and  conscientious  archaeologists ;  but  the  vindi- 
cation of  its  authenticity,  published  by  Mr.  Robert  Clark,  of 
Cincinnati,  in  1876,  may  be  regarded  as  fully  satisfactory  and 
as  entitling  it  to  a  place  among  the  authentic  relics  of  the 
mound  builders.  It  is  made  of  a  dark,  fine-grained  sand- 
stone, and  as  no  verbal  description  could  be  made  to  convey 
an  intelligible  idea  of  it,  a  cut  of  both  sides  of  it,  of  full  size, 
is  here  given,  which  was  kindly  loaned  for  this  use  by  Mr. 
Clark.  An  inspection  of  the  cuts  will  lead  to  the  ready 
inference  that  it  is  not  a  writing  of  any  kind.  There  are 
slight  differences  between  the  engraving  and  a  cast  of  the 
relic.  In  the  cast  the  two  bars  at  one  end  of  the  tablet  are 
each  connected  at  the  middle  with  the  central  work,  so  that 
all  that  is  included  within  the  outer  margins  constitutes  one 


—102— 


on 

CINCINNATI   TABLET. 


■103- 


CINCINNATI  TABLET,   REVERSE. 


—104— 

figure  with  bilateral  symmetry.  It  is  a  work  showing  much 
skill  in  stone-engraving,  both  in  the  execution  and  in  the 
almost  exact  duplication  of  the  separate  parts,  but  its  signi- 
fication, if  it  has  any,  is  not  apparent.  The  supposition  that 
the  conspicuous  markings  at  the  two  ends  are  copies  of 
standard  measures  of  length  is  scarcely  tenable,  when  it  is 
noted  that  in  the  cast  neither  of  the  series  of  divisions  are 
of  equal  length  and  that  the  smaller  are  not  subdivisions  of 
the  larger.  Mr.  Clark  sends  me  a  photograph  of  a  somewhat 
similar  engraving  said  to  have  been  found  in  a  mound.  It 
is  smaller,  very  much  less  skillfully  executed,  and  lacks  the 
bilateral  symmetry  of  the  "  Cincinnati  tablet."  A  cut  of  the 
reverse  side  of  the  latter  is  given,  but  it  probably  has  no 
significance. 

The  sand-stone  tablet,  alleged  to  have  been  found  at 
Wilmington,  is  in  some  respects  like  the  "Cincinnati  tablet.'' 
According  to  the  engravings  published  it  is  far  inferior  in 
execution.  There  is  only  a  partial  attempt  at  bilateral 
symmetry,  and  the  duplication  of  parts  is  inaccurately  done. 
This,  and  the  unintelligible  carving  on  the  slate  ornament, 
might  pass  as  genuine  relics  were  it  not  for  the  character  of 
the  animal  and  human  carvings  on  the  other  part  of  it.  The 
free-hand  attempt  at  shading  the  animal  figures,  the  graceful 
outlines  of  the  human  figures,  the  delineation  of  their 
clothing,  particularly  the  close-fitting  garments  of  the  male, 
and  the  character  of  the  weapons  he  carries,  which  have 
been  previously  described,  all  indicate  that  they  do  not 
represent  barbaric  art.  A  doubt  of  their  genuineness  is  no 
imputation  upon  the  integrity  of  those  who  have  given 
descriptions  of  them  to  the  public.  The  best  collections  of 
relics  contain  forgeries,  some  of  which  have  been  purchased 
for  a  large  price,  and  almost  every  community  can  furnish 
those  who  will  take  great  delight  in  imposing  upon  explorers 
of  mounds.  If  the  genuineness  of  all  these  relics  were 
conceded,  they  do  not  afford,  as  is  claimed,  any  evidence  of 
the  use  of  writing.  What  are  claimed  to  be  written  char- 
acters in  all  of  the  squares,  are  laboriously  unlike  in  all  their 


—105— 

details.      A   writing   of     that    length,   either    alphabetical, 
pictorial  or   symbolical,  would  certainly  exhibit  repetitions. 

The  controversy  over  the  Hebrew  inscriptions,  claimed  to 
have  been  found  by  David  Wyrick,  near  Newark,  is  now 
generally  regarded  as  closed.  They  were  found  when  evi- 
dence was  eagerly  sought  to  connect  the  aboriginal  races 
with  the  house  of  Israel.  Now  that  the  idea  of  such  a 
connection  is  abandoned  by  all,  the  discovery  of  Hebrew 
inscribed  stones  would  be  an  anachronism,  for  such  forgerie8 
will  always  in  some  way  represent  the  ideas  of  the  time  of 
the  forgery.  As  an  example,  the  greatest  forgery  of  this 
century  is  the  book  of  Mormon.  A  careful  reading  of  it  will 
disclose  to  any  competent  critic  very  nearly  the  date  of  the 
forgery.  It  was  written  during,  or  very  soon  after,  the 
controversy  between  Masonry  and  Anti-Masonry,  and  is 
decidedly  Anti-Masonic.  It  was  written  during  the  theolog- 
ical controversy  over  popery  pedo-baptism  ;  the  salvation  of 
infants ;  a  paid  priesthood,  election  and  free-will,  all  of 
which  questions  it  attempts  to  settle;  when  the  "  falling 
power/'  as  it  was  called,  was  regarded  as  the  work  of  the 
Spirit,  which  it  describes  and  approves  ;  while  the  act  of 
divination  by  looking  into  a  crystal  was  believed  in  by  some  ; 
while  it  was  believed  that  the  native  races  here  were  Israel- 
ites ;  and  before  contact  with  Europeans,  worshipers  of  the 
Great  Spirit,  and  while  it  was  popularly  believed  that  the 
linguistic  peculiarities  of  our  bible  were  wholly  character- 
istic of  the  languages  in  which  it  was  originally  written,  and 
not  of  the  state  of  the  English  language  at  the  time  of  its 
translation.  These  internal  evidences  &x  the  date  of  its 
composition  as  about  fifty  years  ago. 

Mr.  Wyrick's  first  find  was  the  inscribed  key-stone  in  the 
form  of  a  Masonic  emblem  on  which  was  carved  in  Hebrew 
of  the  twelfth  century,  "  The  King  of  the  Earth."  "  The 
Word  of  the  Lord."  "  The  Laws  of  Jehovah."  "  The  Holy 
of  Holies."  In  the  year  following  he  "found,"  enclosed  in  a 
neat  stone  box  with  a  closelv  fitting  cover,  a  stone  tablet 
having  on    it  an  effigy  of  Mose3  in  priestly  robes  and  an 


— 106 — 

epitome  ot  the  ten  commandments  in  Hebrew.  Surely  no* 
better  evidence  could  be  secured  of  a  Hebrew  migration  to 
this  country.  It  is  significant  that  Mr.  Wy rick's  published 
account  of  the  "finds"  was  largely  devoted  to  an  attempt  to 
prove  that  they  could  not  be  forged,  and  that  upon  his 
death  there  was  found  in  his  working-room  a  Hebrew  Bible 
which  doubtless  aided  him  much  in  finding  Hebrew 
inscriptions. 

These  Holy  relics  were  sold  to  David  M.  Johnson,  of 
Coshocton,  Ohio,  who  in  1867  employed  laborers  for  several 
days  in  exploring  a  mound  from  which  one  of  the  inscribed 
stones,  he  obtained  from  Wyrick,  was  taken.  His  search 
was  rewarded  by  finding  inside  of  a  human  skull  a  conical 
stone  about  three  (3)  inches  long  on  which  was  also  a  Hebrew 
inscription.  No  one  seems  to  have  been  surprised  by  the 
peculiarity  of  the  place  in  which  it  was  found,  or  to  have 
doubted  its  genuineness.  It  is  probable  that  no  archaeologist 
of  fair  standing  can  now  be  found  to  advocate  its  genuine- 
ness or  that  of  the  Wyrick  finds. 

Perhaps  no  relic  has  been  the  cause  of  more  discussion  in 
Ohio,  and  among  archaeologists  everywhere,  than  a  small 
piece  of  sand-stone  covered  on  one  face  with  inscribed 
characters  and  which  it  is  alleged  was  taken  from  a  vault 
in  the  Grave  Creek  Mound,  in  1838.  Some  years  ago,  as 
one  of  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose  by  the  Ohio 
State  Archaeological  Society,  I  undertook  to  gather  up  all 
the  evidence  that  could  be  secured  in  regard  to  the  finding 
of  this  relic.  Numerous  letters  were  received  from  those 
engaged  in  the  exploration,  or  who  were  present  when  it 
was  found.  All  answered  every  inquiry  fully  and  frankly. 
These  letters  were  turned  over  to  the  Northern  Ohio  His- 
torical Society,  of  Cleveland,  for  preservation.  From  all 
these  letters  it  may  be  regarded  as  well  established — 

First.  That  this  relic  was  first  seen  in  the  loose  dirtr 
wheeled  out  through  a  tunnel  leading  to  the  centre  of  the 
mound,  and  dumped  in  a  pile,  from   which  it  was  picked  up 


■107- 


and  exhibited  to  those  standing  by,  all  at  once  assuming  that 
it  came  from  the  mound. 

Second.  That  no  one  questioned  its  genuineness  or  gave 
it  any  scrutiny  to  see  whether  it  showed  evidence  of  recent 
manufacture.  Hence  the  character  of  the  inscription  can 
now  be  determined  only  by  an  examination  of  it,  or  of 
engravings  of  it. 

It  is  very  easy  to  manufacture  a  series  of  arbitrary  char- 
acters which  would  constitute  a  good  alphabet.  It  is  not  so 
easy  to  forge  an  inscription  with  it.  In  an  inscription  the 
letters  will  be  duplicated,  or  doubled,  and  will  be  repeated 
with  a  frequency  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  the  number  of  the 
characters  in  the  alphabet  used.  The  forger  of  an  inscrip- 
tion will  proceed  very  much  as  if  forging  an  alphabet,  and 
it  will  rarely  occur  to  him  to  double  or  repeat  his  characters. 
In  a  forged  alphabet,  also,  a  genetic  relation  will  frequently 
be  observed  between  letters  and  those  immediately  preced- 
ing, the  one  being  a  modification  of  the  other.  In  using  the 
same  letters  in  an  intelligible  inscription  this  connection  will 
be  broken. 

To  illustrate  these  facts,  four  different  persons  were  asked 
to  write  each  an  inscription  in  arbitrary  characters,  unlike 
the  letters  of  any  alphabet  they  knew,  and  without  being 
informed  as  to  the  object  of  the  request.  These  inscriptions 
are  here  copied,  and  all  of  the  characters  except  the  last  two 
of  the  Grave  Creek  Mound  inscription  : 


1. 

Q  lib  HI  US  I7J  XX  DCNL  £  1-3  A  A/\ 

2. 

l/\~  vT/\^JAM±nn-x\/vc  n 

3. 

rjcrs  rrtf Hi  TV  a  vc  j  i-  U 

4. 

h  t>  h  1 t  x  /  a  >  //#  V  <  r  x  ■/ 1  fl  A  \ 

5. 

i/ty  /a^A(I)/(X)v/0v/^i 

—108— 


No.  1.  By  a  teacher'and  law  student. 

"     2.  By  a  school  girl. 

"    3.  By  a  druggist. 

"     4.  By  a  college  professor. 

"    5.  The  Graw  Creek  inscription. 

The   latter  may  be  compared  with  an  engraving  copied 
from  the  stone,  which  is  here  inserted : 

The  genetic  relations  be- 
tween different  successive 
characters  can  be  clearly 
seen  in  all  these  inscrip- 
tions, that  from  the  Grave 
Creek  Mound,  included- 
The  writer  of  each  often 
had  one  character  in  mind 
when  making  the  next  one, 
and  gave  a  modified  form 
of   it. 


There  is  no  doubling  of  letters  in  any  of  them,  and  there 
is  no  certain  repetition  of  letters.  In  the  Grave  Creek 
inscription,  the  4th  from  the  left,  is  somewhat  like  the  8th, 
and  the  6th  somewhat  like  the  20th.  In  a  cast  of  the  stone 
these  characters  are  more  unlike  than  in  the  engraving.  If  it  is 
conceded  that  there  are  two  repetitions,  it  will  be  found  that 
taking  a  sentence  of  equal  length  from  any  known  alpha- 
betical writing,  the  repetitions  will  be  much  more  numerous. 
The  inference  is  that  the  inscription  is  not  alphabetical,  an 
inference  greatly  strengthened  by  the  smallness  of  the  char- 
acters, the  fineness  and  distinctness  of  the  lines  forming 
them.  The  character  of  the  tools  for  writing  on  stone,  which 
the  mound  builders  must  have  used,  if  they  wrote  at  all,  is 
apparent  from  the  preceding  pages.  This  inscription  requires 
for  its  production  as  good  an  instrument  as  a  sharp-pointed 
steel  knife.  With  that  it  could  easily  be  produced  in  'dvery 
few  minutes. 


—109— 

As  the  case  now  stands,  it  can  well  be  said  that  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  mound  builders  knew  or  practiced  the  art 
of  writing.  Further,  that  their  social  and  artistic  condition, 
as  disclosed  by  the  study  of  their  remains,  was  not  such  as 
to  make  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  writing  probable. 

SOCIAL  AND   CIVIL  CONDITION  OF  THE 
MOUND   BUILDERS. 

The  social  condition  of  the  American  hunting  Indians  has 
been  pretty  thoroughly  known  through  the  direct  contact  of 
the  civilized  nations ;  but  that  of  the  "mound  builders"  is  not 
so  easily  learned.  A  special  definition  of  this  term  is  a 
necessary  preliminary  to  the  investigation,  for  many  of  the 
hunting  races,  inhabiting  the  country  after  the  advent  of  the 
whites,  were  mound  builders,  and  the  erection  of  mounds, 
especially  in  the  southern  part  of  the  territory  now  including 
the  United  States,  was  continued  to  quite  modern  times. 
Articles  of  copper,  silver  and  steel,  of  unquestioned  modern 
manufacture,  are  found  in  southern  mounds  as  deeply  and 
securely  buried  as  the  implements  found  in  Ohio  mounds. 
The  term,  unless  the  context  otherwise  shows,  will  be  used 
to  designate  the  builders  of  the  elaborate  structures  found 
in  Ohio  annd  the  other  works  attributed  to  the  same  age. 

The  facts  above  recorded,  as  well  as  the  concurrent  testi- 
mony of  all  the  well  established  facts,  show  the  want  of 
three  very  important  aids  to  civilization  :  domestic  animals, 
iron  or  steel  tools,  and  the  art  of  writing.  The  want  of  the 
first  is  almost  an  inseparable  obstacle  to  emergence  from 
barbarism.  The  pastoral  condition  which  was  here  impos- 
sible, is  normally  the  first  advance  from  the  hunting  condition- 
Flocks  and  herds  are  the  first  important  accumulations  of 
capital  for  distant  future  use,  and  their  possession  leads  man 
out  of  the  savage  habit  of  content  if  his  immediate  wants 
are  supplied,  and  induces  labor  and  forethought  for  the 
future.  The  flesh,  skin,  milk  and  wool  of  these  animals 
provides  more  abundantly  for  his  wants,  developes  arts  for 


—110- 
preparing  and  utilizing  them,  secures  a  more  compact  social 
organization,  and  less  vagrant  habits.  These  lead  upward 
to  the  practice  of  the  art  of  agriculture  and  a  special  appro- 
priation of  land  interfering  with  its  pastoral  use,  followed 
by  controversies  like  that  between  Cain  and  Abel,  in  which 
the  agriculturist  is  generally  victorious,  because  his  is  the 
superior  condition,  leading  to  further  advancement.  It  is 
not  without  significance  that  the  descendants  of  Cain  were 
represented  as  the  discoverers  of  the  arts  of  metallurgy.  The 
single  domestic  animal  of  the  Peruvians,  valuable  for  food, 
as  a  beast  of  burden,  and  for  its  wool,  gave  them  a  great 
advantage  over  all  other  American  tribes.  Its  wool  devel- 
oped the  art  of  spinning  and  weaving,  gave  them  better 
clothing,  and  with  many  other  important  advantages,  gave 
them  the  use  of  sails  and  the  art  of  navigation.  North 
America,  with  its  deeply  indented  coast  line,  was  more 
favorable  to  navigation,  but  a  sailboat  was  nowhere  found  by 
its  first  European  explorers. 

The  mound  builders  reached  the  agricultural  without 
passing  through  the  pastoral  condition,  but  the  want  of 
efficient  metal  tools  must  have  made  that  agriculture  com- 
paratively unproductive.  Their  agriculture  consolidated 
them  into  village  communities,  gave  them  a  compact,  social 
organization  which  made  the  construction  of  the  remarkable 
works  they  have  left  us,  possible.  If  they  had  stumbled 
apon  the  art  of  producing  iron  and  steel,  they  would  doubt- 
less have  attained  to  a  true  .civilization.  Without  it  we 
should  naturally  deem  this  impossible  ;  and  [we  in  fact  find 
that  all  the  relics  of  the  arts  they  have  left  us  are  barbaric. 
Their  sculptures  and  carvings  often  show  much  skill  and 
very  patient,  long-continued  work,  but  to  the  modern  eye 
are  not  artistic.  Their  clothing  must  have  been  of  a  prim- 
itive character.  The  fragments  of  textile  fabrics  preserved 
are  coarse,  and  the  use  of  strings  of  bark  fibre  for  their 
most  costly  necklaces,  as  disclosed  by  remains  found  in  a 
mound  by  Mr.  Marsh,  sufficiently  attest  the  want  or  scarcity 
of  better  spinning  fiber.    They  were  doubtless  largely  clothed 


—111- 
iii  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  they  perhaps  utilized  the 
wooly  hair  of  the  buffalo  by  spinning  and  weaving  it.  They 
found  leisure  for  the  attendance  of  large  concourses  at 
religious  or  civic  festivals,  as  the  elaborate  and  costly  enclos- 
ures evidently  designed  for  some  such  use,  abundantly  testify. 
They  manufactured  pottery,  but  it  was  all  rude.  They  made 
long  journeys  in  search  of  copper  and  mined  it  in  the  most 
primitive  manner,  but  they  did  not  learn  the  art  of  making 
castings  of  it,  or  of  consolidating  the  small  fragments  by 
melting  them.  They  probably  sunk  wells  for  petroleum 
where  it  could  be  obtained  from  seepings  through  the  earth, 
but  no  vessel  which  is  suspected  to  be  a  lamp  for  burning  it, 
or  animal  fats,  for  light  has  been  discovered.  They  wrought 
chert  and  stone  and  shells  into  about  as  many  useful  forms 
as  modern  workmen  could,  with  their  more  perfect  tools,  but 
these  were  all  very  poor  substitutes  for  modern  steel  tools. 
They  believed  in  a  future  life,  and  provided  the  dead  with 
the  weapons  of  war  and  of  the  chase  and  the  domestic 
utensils  they  had  used  in  life  and  dispatched  with  them  on 
their  long  journey  their  wives  and  attendants  as  companions. 
Their  later  history  was  probably  that  of  a  long-continued 
struggle  against  the  aggressions  of  hostile  hunting  tribes  and 
the  encroachments  of  forests,  before  the  combined  influence 
of  which  they  were  forced  to  retreat. 

Standing  beside  some  of  their  remarkable  earthworks,  a 
glamour  of  admiration  leads  us  to  picture,  in  imagination,  a 
departed  race,  learned  in  all  the  highest  arts  of  civilization. 
But  under  the  careful  study  of  their  remains  the  picture 
vanishes,  and  leaves  in  its  place  that  of  a  patient,  plodding 
people,  with  poor  appliances,  struggling  towards  civilization 
while  still  on  the  confines  of  barbarism.  If  we  compare  the 
artistic  remains  found  in  the  mounds  with  those  exhumed 
on  the  sites  of  the  most  ancient  Asiatic  cities,  the  contrast, 
both  in  the  variety  of  articles  and  skill  displayed  in  their 
production,  is  very  great,  and  precisely  such  a  contrast  as 
we  ought  to  expect  between  peoples  having  good  metal 
cutting  tools  and  those  without  them. 


—112— 

If  it  is  asked  of  what  race  were  these  mound  builders,  it 
now  can  only  be  said  they  were  one  of  the  native  American 
races,  closely  allied  to  the  hunting  Indians,  and  probably  a 
branch  of  the  same  race.  There  are  certain  peculiarities  of 
the  skulls  and  jaws  of  the  skeletons,  found  in  the  mounds, 
which  are  supposed  by  many  to  separate  them  from  the  other 
native  races. 

The  description  of  the  skulls  found  by  Mr.  Marsh,  in  a 
mound  at  Newark,  as  given  in  the  quotation  from  his  report, 
indicates  the  character  of  these  peculiarities,  which  also 
characterize  a  skull  obtained  from  a  mound  at  Marietta,  and 
two  obtained  from  a  mound  near  Chattanooga,  Tenn.  The 
lower  jaw  is  larger  and  more  prognathous  than  that  of  the 
modern  Indian,  and  so  articulated  that  the  incisors  of  each 
jaw  meet  squarely  when  the  mouth  is  shut,  not  passing  each 
other  so  as  to  give  a  scissor-like  cutting  action,  as  do  the 
incisors  of  modern  civilized  people.  Hence  the  action  of 
the  incisors  is  a  grinding  and  not  a  cutting  action,  and  these 
teeth  are  worn  off  on  the  same  plane  as  the  molars,  and  of 
necessity,  just  as  fast.  In  none  of  the  jaws  of  these  skulls 
were  there  any  unsound  teeth,  but  all  were  remarkably  worn 
away,  all  of  the  incisors  equally  with  the  molars.  This 
rapid  wearing  away  of  the  teeth,  which  is  frequently  observed 
in  savage  races,  and  is  seen  in  the  early  British  skulls,  is  the 
result  of  eating  hard,  unground  grain,or  of  a  want  of  neatness 
in  preparing  food,  leaving  it  filled  with  dirt  and  sand. 
Ordinarily  the  latter  is  the  cause.  Either  is  incompatible 
with  much  advance  in  civilization.  This  form  of  the  jaw 
and  mode  of  its  articulation,  which  brings  the  incisors  of  the 
two  jaws  into  direct  contact,  is  not,  as  supposed,  peculiar  to 
the  mound  builders,  but  is  often  seen  in  skulls  which  plainly 
belonged  to  modern  Indians,  and  occasionally  in  the  white 
race,  when  the  one  having  that  peculiarity  is  said  to  have 
double  teeth  all  round.  This  peculiarity  is  seen  in  a  skull 
taken  from  an  Indian  burial  ground  near  Fairport,  Lake 
County.  Comparing  this  skull  with  that  from  the  Marietta 
Mound,  the  following  differences  are  observed  :     The  lower 


—113— 

jaw  of  that  from  the  mound  is  more  massive  and  more 
prognathous.  The  front  teeth  are  larger  and  all  the  teeth 
are  more  worn ;  all  are  sound,  while  two  in  the  Indian 
skull  were  partly  decayed.  The  forehead  is  narrower  and 
more  retreating,  and  there  is  a  marked  occipital  protuber- 
ance greatly  exceeding  that  on  the  Indian  skull,  above  which 
is  a  suture,  below  the  lamboid  suture,  which  is  wanting  in 
the  Indian,  and  in  most  modern  skulls.  The  supereilliary 
ridge  is  more  prominent,  the  molar  bones  larger,  but  more 
retreating ;  the  chin  less  prominent,  the  cavities  for  the  eyes 
less  circular,  and  a  little  more  oblique  ;  and  the  nasal  cavities 
smaller  in  the  skull  from  the  mound.  All  the  cranial  char- 
acteristics of  the  Indian  skull,  although  it  is  smaller,  are  of 
a  higher  type  than  are  exhibited  by  the  skull  from  the 
Marietta  mound. 

Note. — The  Indian  skull  was  pierced,  while  living,  through  the  occipital 
bone  with  some  sharp  cutting  instrument,  about  an  inch  and  a  half  wide,, 
which  pierced  the  brain,  and  was  evidently  the  cause  of  death. 

WERE  THE  MOUND  BUILDERS  THE  FIRST 
OCCUPANTS  OF  THIS  REGION? 
The  fire  hearths  along  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  River,, 
described  by  Col.  Whittlesey  and  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Kinney, 
are  doubtless  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  mounds,  but  unless 
the  builders  of  these  were  an  intrusive  people,  bringing  with 
them  their  practice  of  mound-building,they  may  have  occupied 
the  country  for  centuries  before  the  building  of  these  structures.. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee  River,  between  Mussel  Shoals 
and  a  point  a  little  above  Chattanooga,  a  rude  chronology  is 
preserved  that  is  of  especial  interest.  Along  the  banks  of 
the  river  are  many  little  shell  heaps  containing  various  relics 
of  a  rude  art  which  clearly  indicate  the  artificial  character  of 
these  mounds.  Scattered  through  them  are  many  minute 
bivalve  shells,  clearly  indicating  that  the  water  formerly 
covered  the  mounds,  and  that  they  were  probably  the 
accumulated  refuse  from  residences  built  on  piles  over  the 
water.     The  extent  of  these  mounds  indicate  long-continued 


—114— 

occupancy,  and  if,  as  appears,  by  the  occupants  of  pile- 
dwellings,  this  fact  can  probably  be  demonstrated  by  the 
careful  excavation  of  the  earth  under  and  around  the  shell 
mounds. 

The  first  terrace  above  the  river  is  covered  with  the 
bleached  fragments  of  river  shells,  o±  such  a  character  as  to 
clearly  show  that  the  water  of  the  river  covered  the  terrace 
when  these  shells,  which  are  of  the  same  species  as  those  now 
in  the  river,  were  deposited.  A  little  above  Chattanooga  the 
soil  of  the  terrace  is  tilled  with  these  shells,  and  here  on  this 
terrace  is  a  large  sepulchral  mound  which  was  partially 
explored  in  1864.  It  was  built  up  from  the  alluvial  soil  of 
this  terrace,  and  contained  large  numbers  of  shells  like  those 
scattered  upon  the  surface,  so  well  preserved  as  to  show  that 
the  mound  was  built  shortly  after  the  recession  of  the  water, 
and  before  the  shells  were  bleached  by  atmospheric  influence. 
On  the  same  terrace,  and  close  to  the  mound,  is  the  site  of  a 
manufactory  of  pottery  and  of  chert  implements,  the 
material  for  the  latter  being  very  abundant  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood.  The  soil  is  filled  with  flakes  of  the  chert, 
with  broken  and  perfect  chert  implements,  as  well  as  with 
fragments  of  pottery  and  amorphous  masses  of  partially 
burned  clay.  It  is  difficult  to  take  up  a  shovel  full  of  earth 
without  taking  with  it  some  of  these  relics,  but  not  a  trace 
of  them  was  found  in  the  mound,  making  it  certain  that  its 
erection  preceded  the  rude  manufactory.  The  shell  heaps 
pertain  to  a  human  occupancy  when  the  water  of  the  river 
covered  the  first  terrace,  the  building  ot  the  mound  to  an 
occupancy  immediately  after  the  water  had  fallen  to  its 
present  channel,  and  the  manufacturing  of  pottery  and  chert 
implements  to  a  time  subsequent  to  the  erection  of  the  mound. 
If  the  withdrawal  of  the  water  from  this  terrace  is  to  be 
attributed,  as  seems  probable,  to  the  wearing  away  of  a 
narrow  rock  channel  of  the  river  directly  below  Chattanooga, 
it  will  carry  back  the  date  of  the  mound  and  of  the  preced- 
ing shell  heaps  to  a  very  remote  period.  The  mound  is  in 
all  respects  a  typical  mound  builder's  sepulchral  mound. 


—115— 

In  explanation  of  a  possible  find  which  may  astonish  some 
future  explorer,  it  should  be  stated  that  the  examination  of 
the  mound  was  made  during  the  war,  when  the  land  around 
it  was  cultivated  by  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission 
as  a  hospital  garden.  A  tunnel  was  carried  in  from  the  east 
side  to  the  centre  of  the  mound  where  a  chamber  of  con- 
siderable size  was  excavated.  As  the  walls  stood  firm,  this 
chamber  was  utilized  by  the  gardener  as  a  store-house. 
When  all  the  guns  of  the  forts  about  Chattanooga  were 
simultaneously  discharged  in  celebration  of  Lee's  surrender, 
the  concussion  caused  the  top  of  this  chamber  to  fall  in, 
hurrying  at  the  center  of  the  mound  a  large  number  of 
modern  gardening  tools.  The  top  of  the  mound  was  restored 
to  shape,  the  entrance  to  the  tunnel  closed,  and  the  tools 
left  to  await  a  resurrection  at  the  hands  of  an  antiquarian. 

The  last  occupancy  of  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee  disclosed 
above  was  doubtless  by  modern  Indians;  the  next  by  the 
"  mound  builders,"  as  distinguished  from  modern  mound 
building  Indians.  Whether  the  earliest  was  that  of  an 
earlier  stage  in  the  life  of  the  mound  builders  can  not  as 
satisfactorily  be  determined.  The  probability  is  that  of 
different  tribes. 

The  question  as  to  the  origin  of  the  mound  builders  would 
be  answered  if  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the  other  native 
races  was  solved.  Whether  the  new  world,  as  it  is  called, 
which  is  in  tact  the  old  world,  was  peopled  from  the  old,  or 
the  reverse,  can  not  be  determined.  Linguistic  and  other 
evidences  indicate  a  point  in  Southern  Asia,or  in  a  submerged 
land  south  of  it,  from  whence  an  emigration  started  which 
gradually  spread  over  all  that  continent.  This,  if  true, 
would  make  it  probable  that  emigration  from  the  same  point 
extended  to  this  continent.  This  would  lead  to  the  infer- 
ence that  it  was  peopled  by  some  early  branch  of  the 
Mongolian  race,  to  which  the  American  races  are  most  nearly 
allied,  by  the  way  of  Behrings  Strait,  and  the  Auletian 
Islands,  perhaps  reinforced  in  South  America, Jas  Haeckel 
suggests,  by  way  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  from  Southern  Asiatic 


— 11G — 

tribes.  If  this  was  the  case,  this  emigration  was  at  a  very 
early  date,  as  nearly  all  the  customs,  habits,  arts,  and  even 
languages  of  the  American  races  seem  to  be  indigenous. 

The  practice  of  scalping,  common  to  the  American  Indians 
and  the  ancient  Scythians,  is  the  most  apparent  evidence  of 
race  affinities  between  the  people  of  the  two  continents.  It 
is  evident  also  that  the  more  civilized  American  races 
practiced  some  forms  of  the  sabian  and  plallic  worship  which 
characterized  the  earliest  known  religious  culture  of  Asia, 
and  that  the  use  of  the  cross  was  intimately  associated  with 
this  worship  in  both  continents.  The  ceremony  of  baptismr 
called  a  new  birth,  pertained  to  both,  and  there  are  indica- 
tions of  the  practice  of  other  rites  and  ceremonies  substan- 
tially the  same  on  both  continents.  But  these  points  of 
agreement  are  few,  and  if  not  accidental,  point  to  a  time 
anterior  to  all  written  history  and  to  a  social  condition 
essentially  barbaric. 

To  the  finds,  as  claimed,  of  a  stone  carving  buried  beneath 
ten  feet  of  glacial  drift,  in  Stark  County,  and  of  the  antique 
chert  knife  in  the  drift  in  Summit  County,  may  be  added  the 
claim  of  a  find  of  a  beautifully  polished  stone  axe,  at  the 
depth  of  twenty  feet,  in  Ashland  County.  If  these  finds  are 
accepted  as  authentic,  we  must  assume  that  these  articles 
were  manufactured  before  the  close  of  the  glacial  epoch. 
But  the  Summit  County  specimen  was  found  where  there  was 
only  two  or  three  feet  of  drift  clay  over  the  rock  surface 
below,  and  various  causes  may  have  carried  it  from  the 
surface  to  that  depth. 

It  is  also  not  claimed  that  any  one  saw  either  of  the  other 
specimens  in  the  clay  matrix  at  the  bottom  of  the  well.  They 
both  appeared  in  the  material  dumped  from  the  buckets 
used  in  hoisting  material  from  the  wells.  The  evidence  of 
the  finding  of  pre-glacial  implements  must  be  so  certain  as 
to  exclude  any  other  reasonable  hypothesis.  Such  evidence 
is  not  afforded  in  these  cases. 

In  Europe,  rude  carvings  demonstrate  the  co-existence  of 
man  with   some  of  the   extinct  animals.     Such  carvings  are 


— 117 — 

generally  wanting  here.  But  the  bones  of  the  elephant  and 
the  mastodon  are  found  near  the  surface,  sometimes  in 
marshes  that  are  alternately  wet  and  dry,  in  a  much  better 
state  of  preservation  than  some  of  the  human  bones  at  the 
bottom  of  burial  mounds  where  the  conditions  for  their 
preservation  are  much  more  favorable.  Placing  such  bones 
side  by  side  and  bearing  in  mind  the  places  from  which  they 
were  exhumed,  one  can  not  resist  the  conclusion  that  the 
human  remains  are  quite  as  old  as  those  of  these  extinct 
animals.  With  these  facts  apparent,  there  is  no  intrinsic 
improbability  of  the  antiquity  of  the  "  elephant  pipes  "  in  the 
Davenport  collection.  The  manner  in  which  they  were 
found  does  not  indicate  that  they  were  "  planted  to  deceive." 
They  are  ot  the  recognized  form  of  the  mound  builders' 
pipe,  a  form  not  imitated  by  modern  Indians.  The  prepon- 
derance of  evidence  is  in  favor  of  their  genuineness,  which, 
if  granted,  proves  the  co-existence  of  the  mound  builders 
with  the  extinct  American  pachyderms. 

Evidence  of  a  very  remote  human  occupancy,  approaching 
the  close  of  the  drift  period,  is  not  wanting.  Mr.  Abbott's 
many  finds  of  "  drift  implements"  are  all  found  in  the 
modified  river  drift,  and  while  he  makes  a  pretty  strong  case 
that  this  modification  occurred  at  the  close  of  the  drift 
period,  the  most  conservative  archaeologists  are  awaiting  the 
discovery  of  undoubted  human  remains  in  the  unmodified 
drift.  Until  such  a  discovery  is  made,  the  existence  of  man 
at  the  time  of  the  glacial  epoch  on  this  continent  will  be 
regarded  as  an  open  question. 


Addendum. 


After  this  report  was  completed,  Mr.  Rufus  Chapman,  of 
Garrettsville,  Ohio,  brought  to  me  an  unique  specimen, 
obtained  by  him  from  a  neighbor  who  plowed  it  up  in  a  field 
at  a  place  where  several  "  Indian  relics  "  had  previously  been 
found.  It  is  made  of  blue  porcelain  ot  the  form  shown  in 
the  figure :  \1?0  inches  long,  and  in  diameter,  1^  inches  and 
1  inch.  It  is  hollow,  as  is  shown  by  its  weight,  and  by  a  small 
fire-crack  in  one  of  the  grooves  through  which  the  cavity 
can  be  explored  by  a  stiff  hair.  It  is  smooth,  very  symmet- 
rical, and  could  be  formed  only  in  a  carefully  prepared 
mold  in  two  pieces,  and  the  parts  attached  to  each  other 
while  the  material  was  plastic.  The  adhesion  of  the  two 
parts  is  perfect,  leaving  a  slight  ridge,  but  no  other  indica- 
tion of  the  place  of  junction.  On  one  of  the  ridges,  near 
the  end  of  the  piece,  is  an  imperfection,  showing  that  after 
it  was  taken  from  the  mold,  this  place  was  repaired  by  the 
addition  of  the  plastic  material,  which  did  not  make  the 
ridge  at  that  place  perfect. 

Mr.  Holmes,  of  the  Bureau  ot  Ethnology  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  after  an  examination  of  it,  says  :  "  No  one 
here  has  seen  anything  like  it.  It  is  made  of  porcelain,  a 
material  unknown  to  the  American  aborigines.  It  is  there- 
fore not  aboriginal,  and  is  probably  not  ancient.  It  looks  as 
if  it  might  be  an  implement  intended  for  use  in  some  of  the 
arts — in  the  manipulation  of  fiber,  skins,  leather,  or  the 
like.  Some  one  will  probably  be  found  who  can  tell  you  all 
about  it." 

If  designed  for  such  use,  the  reason  is  not  apparent  of  the 
greatly  increased  labor  of  making  it  hollow.  A  wood  cut 
of  the  specimen  is  here  given,  and  information  solicited 
from  any  who  have  seen  similar  articles  or  have  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  uses  to  which  they  were  applied.  The  cut  is  a 
little  less  than  one-half  natural  size. 


■110— 


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Mr"  '--J /-l. 

- 


14  DAY  USE 

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